Houston County Engineer and his Houston County Road and Bridge Department have been working tirelessly since the late March floods repairing Houston County roads. Many were “blown” out and needed to be filled back in and repaved or regraded.. Most of the work is complete, but obtaining reimbursement from FEMA is proving to be problematic for Pool. Pool said that there is a 5000 difference in what he says repairs cost his department versus what FEMA says it will pay. A large portion of this is in dirt used to fill in washed out roads. Pool said today at a County Commission meeting that it takes 1.4 times the amount in loose dirt to replace dirt lost in the blown road. The defect is first filled back with loose dirt (what FEMA is willing to pay for), and then the filled in area is packed (tamped down). According to Pool, an industry standard and something that anyone in the business of building and repairing roads knows, and is documented in the RS Means manual, it takes another 40% of loose dirt to bring the repair to the proper level. And this, says Pool, FEMA is unwilling to reimburse the county for. And this dirt does not come cheap: the 40% not reimbursed comes to 0000. Pool said the reason why FEMA will not pay for the extra dirt is because FEMA inspectors sent down don’t know what they are doing and have no training in road repairs. To prove his point, Pool put on a demonstration. He took a cylinder of packed dirt from samples on a county road, emptied in a tub …
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