Kimball one to six year plan - underpass projects replace rail spur work

City of Kimball street department superintendent Jim Shoup reported to the City Council that two projects were deleted from last year's one to six year plan and two different projects replaced them.

At the regular City Council meeting, on Tuesday, Jan. 17, Shoup said that the deleted projects originally on the one to six year plan were no longer necessary or feasible.

One, a turning lane on Highway 30 near IOS/Castronics, could not have been completed because the highway belongs to the State of Nebraska, who did not approve of the project.

"It didn't make a lot of sense because the state would not have let us do it," Shoup said.

The second deleted project was a proposed street on the north side of the railroad tracks, also near Castronics, would have been needed only upon completion of the rail spur project.

"If we had gone forward with the rail spur project we would have had to build a road on the (North) side of the railroad tracks because we would have deleted the county road that goes between Castronics' two yards," he added. "So we took that off because we didn't have to build a road to connect that road to County Road 45."

Instead, the approaches to the historic underpass will be addressed, with those on the north side of the tracks being a separate project than those on the south side. The new projects will total approximately $80,000.

Curbs and gutters add up to $10,000 annually as well. Additionally, each year the street department works on maintaining the streets with armor coating and chip sealing.

"We spend about $85,000 a year on that," Shoup said. "I have a list of how they have been done throughout the years. It prolongs the life of our streets."