Makee Drive now open to all traffic ...

The paving of a one-mile stretch of Makee Drive just north of Waukon has now been completed and the roadway has been opened to all traffic as of the middle of July. The primary contractor completing the paving was Wicks Construction, Inc. out of Decorah using a GOMACO paving machine, which is Iowa-made in Ida Grove and is world renowned for slip-form pavers (no forms required on pavement edges). Croell Redi-Mix from Waukon supplied the concrete mix, which was Portland cement concrete (PCC) with a depth of eight inches and width of 22 feet that required 16,000 square yards of pavement hauled in by 355 truckloads. The grading and culvert work on the project had been primarily done last fall by subcontractor Skyline Construction Inc. out of Decorah and allowed to settle during the winter. The mile-long pavement project began at Makee Drive’s intersection with Highway 9 (pictured above) east to its four-way intersection with Four Corners Road. Consistent semi and other heavy vehicle traffic causing maintenance and safety issues had been noted in an April 2016 public hearing as reasons the pavement project was added to the County’s five-year road plan at that time, with funding for the project coming from a combination of road use tax and property tax, similar to other paving projects within that five-year plan. Total construction cost was $1.1 million, with $620,000 of that being for the pavement itself. In addition to the new pavement, the roadway also had six-foot gravel shoulders installed on each side. Standard photo by Joe Moses.