The tab for improvements on a two-lane road in eastern El Paso County continues to rise.

In response to a public records act request, county officials confirmed that they spent nearly $770,000 in 2008 to gravel a 13 mile stretch of Myers Road. The cost includes $177,000 in county workers’ salaries, $336,000 for equipment and $256,000 for materials — primarily magnesium chloride and gravel.

That’s  in addition to the $1.3 million that was spent this year to chip-seal Myers Road, which brings the total cost of improvements for the two-year period to more than $2 million.

“It’s a ludicrous amount of money,” said anti-tax crusader Douglas Bruce,  who as a county commissioner in 2007 voted against spending $100,000 to gravel eight miles of Myers Road. “There’s still too much blubber on the Moby Dick of county government.”

Commissioner Amy Lathen, who represents District 2 where the road is located, maintains the improvements were “an innovative and cost effective method of  improving a long-time and important road problem in the county.”

Myers Road is one of the only east-west thoroughfares in the southern part of the county, but traffic is so light that it  doesn’t even reach the level that requires dust mitigation.

In 2008, when the major improvements began, vehicular traffic at the intersection of Myers Road and Boone Road was 70 vehicles, according to average daily traffic counts available on the county’s Web site.  The highest recorded number of vehicles occurred in 2003 when 196 vehicles were counted at the intersection of Myers Road and Peyton Highway.

Despite the light traffic, county officials contend the road improvements are needed because the improper grading made the road nearly impassable during heavy rains and prevented an emergency vehicle from getting through on one occasion.

In addition to the graveling and chip-sealing Myers Road, the county plans to spend $18,000 to stripe and oil the thoroughfare, said André Brackin, county engineer. Some additional maintenance may be done in 2010, he added.

—

Call the writer at 476-4825.

El Paso County spent $750,000 to improve Myers Road that runs just north of Hanover in rural El Paso County. Photo by CAROL LAWRENCE, THE GAZETTE