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Eielson Farm Road (EFR) is the main road located in the 23 Mile slough road service area(RSA). Efr is located 7 miles South of North Pole and runs through the heart of the Eielson Agricultural Project. Taxes are collected from land owners by the borough to pay for road maintenance and upgrades within the service area. Decisions on how to spend money are made by a vote of 3 commissioners appointed by the Borough Mayor. Everyone is invited to comment on how your tax dollars are being spent.
7 comments:
It should be noted that the referenced report was submitted by the Borough Engineer responsible for ensuring quality control of the 2007 project. During this project, both Warren Smith and I attempted to contact the engineer numerous times with our concerns over the lack of quality in the construction. We called his office, his cell phone, and attempted contact by e-mail. Calls and e-mails were not ever returned. The current condition of the road is due, at least partially in my estimation, to this engineer's oversight failure.
Our concerns focused around the lack of timely road core sample reports, the lack of timely confirmation of minimum oil content in the rap, and, at the end of the road, the failure of the contractor to lay adequate rap, to provide the same quantity of emulsion product dispersal, and the immediate pull up of the topping (within the hour). We were unable to get any response from the borough engineer or his supervisors to these concerns. When rap oil sample percentages were finally obtained, it was evident that there were many sections of the road which had substandard rap used in the construction. These areas of concern were never addressed nor were the areas redressed by the borough or the contractor. Instead, the Borough, against our written objections, signed the agreement that the contractor had met all contract obligations and released the contractor from any further responsibilities.
Our previous contractor has had significant success in tearing up the rap, providing adequate oil to bring the rap up to minimum standards, and re-laying the rap, rolling it, and then covering it with the emulsion product topping. The areas thus repaired have held up for the first and second years. It is my recommendation that this process be continued, along with spot repairs where needed, and that the two remaining sections of the road in substandard condition now be repaired in this manner. These areas are from approximately mile 7 (actually just past Liz and Chris Bek's driveway) to the end of the resurfacing project and the portion of the road between Sawmill Trail just past the bridge over 23 mile slough up to the curve in the road just before Stu Davies' driveway. The total mileage of these sections is less than 1.5 miles.
Ron
Ron & Marji Illingworth
Lilyvale Farm
North Pole, Alaska
907-488-0446 (H)
Having read the report, I would still be very distrustful of this man and his letter; especially the "please feel free to call me anytime " portion. I called and left messages every day for a week straight after the 2007 fiasco and never got a reply.
Remember, it is this guy who signed off any liability of the contractor and left us with a bill to pay for the repairs.
Karl
Hi All,
I agree with both Karl and Ron that this guy has pretty well spent any credibility with us. The reason for the road in its current state is largely due to this.... guy. I don't trust him at this point, and think that others should not either.
If you read his letter carefully, you'll notice he does not give any definitive answers, and he makes sure to emphasize several times that his review of current conditions is "at this time" or "best information I could obtain to date". This is by no means an official review, and done by the same guy who was part of the initial problem.
I would ask that the RSA Commission get an independent review done by some one not affiliated with FNSB Public Works, and not affiliated with a contractor that was either involved in the work, or who may be involved in future upgrades. In the determination of what went wrong during the 2007 project, several people were involved to provide the RSA Commission then with the data and analysis of the road condition. Any party involved with this will always look out for their share of the liability/blame, try to minimize it, and therefore not give us the real scope of what may need to be done.
I realize that it might be too late in the year to do this review this year, before the snow falls, but would strongly recommend that the committee have an independent review next year. It may cost some money to do that, but I think it would be well spent to get an accurate, non-biased picture of our current road condition.
Chris Beks
Chris,
Do you have an estimation of how much an independent review would cost or a suggestion of who would do it?
Darcy
Thanks Ron,
Being the new kids on the block, it's nice to see that someone is looking out for everyone's interest. For the past few days I have been looking much closer at the concerns many of the members of the area have. After reading the FNSB engineer's letter, I now understand where the problem is. Proper engineering from the conception of the project and on site verification of the materials used' as well as adhering to the statement of work could have very easily prevented the problems we now have. We are in favor of having an independent engineer review our problem. Since the NSB can establish requirements on driveways and not follow standard engineering practices for roads, in our opinion, this is unacceptable.
Sue Fulmer / Jack Johnson
5714 Dort Dr.
North Pole, AK 99705
Sue cell 907-209-6754/
Jack cell 907-209-6753
screamingeagless@msn.com
On Oct 14, 2009, at 9:58, Stu Davies wrote:
Chris -
Thanks for the input. As I told both Karl and Ron, this review was not intended to rehash what happened in 2007 but to give us a current picture of the road, the repairs and the maintenance to date. This report cost nothing to the RSA.
If the commission decides to spend the money for an independent engineer's report that is always on the table and could be decided at one of our next meetings. It will be expensive and we still run the risk of accepting recommendations that will be costly and may not work.
I have asked the borough to respond to your concerns and hope they will.
Stu Davies
Thanks Stu. We may be able to get some assistance from Steve Becker's resources who deal with issues like ours routinely in rural Alaska. He said he'd have some ideas by the end of this week. Steve runs the University's tribal technical assistance program and is a specialist in road construction, maintenance, and upgrade. The Borough is familiar with his work.
Ron
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