FARMINGTON — The state Bureau of Parks and Lands is willing to share the cost with Franklin County and lend its expertise to fix Byron Road where the trailheads to Tumbledown Mountain are located.
Byron Road in Township 6 North of Weld is part of Franklin County unorganized territory infrastructure. It was damaged during the June 26 rainstorm.
The county had the larger holes in the road filled with crushed stone and gravel, county Administrator Amy Bernard said Tuesday during a county commission meeting. A sign was also purchased indicating the road was closed to through traffic and drivers pass at their own risk. The road had been graded this past spring.
Bernard and commissioners asked the state to partner with them to fix the road or for the state to take it over completely. The county has already invested about $12,000 in grading and gravel, Bernard said. More work needs to be done to improve it, including bringing the road back into shape.
“It would need a lot of work,” she said.
Bill Patterson, deputy director of the state Bureau of Parks and Land, said the state would not be interested in taking over the road. However, they would be interested in helping the county draft specifications for bids or proposals to fix it.
Patterson said the bureau would be able to cover grading the road this year and help with best management practices. He estimated it would be about $5,000. A grader could bring in the sides of the widest part of the road to put it back in shape.
Commissioners estimated that it would take $70,000 to $100,000 to repair and get the road back.
Patterson said that could be done in phases and the money does not need to be spent in one year. He envisioned pitching in up to $5,000 a year for five years to get the road stabilized. Patterson and county officials could work on a three- to five-year plan for the road.
Patterson and Stephen Richardson, a forest engineer with the bureau, also agreed to Bernard’s request to make recommendations to the county on what size culverts need to be installed.
“We could never close the road … it was never an option to close the road,” Bernard said.
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