There are several projects on the horizon for the Guthrie County Secondary Roads Department, though construction on them may not begin until 2021.

A bid opening for a project to replace two bridges in Orange Township and one in Union Township was held at the most recent Guthrie County Board of Supervisors meeting, and County Engineer Josh Sebern says he will soon be letting two other projects out for bid, “One is a combination type project where we have two streambed stabilization weirs in conjunction with a new bridge replacement. We’ll be going to bid shortly and 80% of the streambed stabilization is paid through the Hungry Canyons Alliance and that will cover a good chunk of the weirs, and the bridge is funded through the wind farm TIF (tax increment financing) funding.”

The other project involves replacing a bridge near Bayard with an aluminum box culvert, which Sebern says will be a first for the department, so it should be an interesting endeavor. That project is also expected to be paid through wind farm tax increment financing dollars. Other large projects for the department this summer have been a bridge replacement on Chestnut Road over the South Raccoon River, and a patching of County Road P28.