A proposal to purchase chip-seal equipment was presented by County Highway Superintendent Bryan Hoerler to the county commissioners at their meeting on Monday. The owner of Topkote, the company that has won the bid for chip sealing projects for many years, is retiring and selling his equipment. As a result, future chip-sealing projects will be more expensive because Topkote has been the only contractor to bid on Morrill County projects; other contractors are located far away.
The cost to have a contractor bid a ten-mile chip-seal project is about $327,000.The purchase of chip-seal equipment will allow the county to perform the work themselves at an estimated cost of $243,500, a savings of $83,500 per average ten-mile yearly chip-seal project. This savings will recoup the cost of the relatively new equipment ($625,500) in about seven years.
The county highway department will be able to schedule and perform the chip-seal projects to best suit their road maintenance schedule. In addition, many pieces of the equipment can be used for purposes other than chip-sealing.
