'Old highway guys,' plus many others, getting roads repaired
Recently, Superior maintenance crews, supervised by Kevin Managhan, were resetting a recently collapsed expansion joint on the eastbound I-90 Clark Fork Bridge at St. Regis. Meanwhile, Riverside Contracting out of Missoula was milling and repaving one of winter’s leftover sprawling potholes on the south side of Superior interchange. Whether private contractors or government maintenance crews, hard working men and women are out in full force repairing bridges and roads this summer.
Denley Loge HD 14 representative had called me the morning before to discuss present local highway project construction issues as well as potential future road projects in the area. Denley retired from the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) over a year ago after decades of working with government and private sector road crews. He has the experience and knowledge to be a strong voice on road project and funding issues for our county and state. As our conversation came to an end he commented “you know I’m just an old Highway guy”. I know he is as concerned as I about the condition of our roads, and wants to do as much as he can for our community.
A few weeks earlier, Dwayne Rehbein of Riverside Contracting and I had just completed a tour of substantial additional road repairs added to the Superior West I-90 pavement preservation contract now under construction. As Dwayne and I discussed the repair work at the 4th street stop sign near the Superior Court house, I mentioned to him I wish I could repair the large area of torn pavement on the other side of the interchange going to the Town Pump. I said, “Unfortunately it’s just out of the project limits and federal dollars could not be used to repair it.” Mr. Rehbein looked it over with me and said to me, “I’ll take care of the repair at my own cost”. Grateful, I put the generous offer to our community on my list of repair work.
As MDT crews labored at the St. Regis bridge resetting the expansion joint in quick setting concrete, Riverside supervisor Dennis Rehbein directed crews to sequence operations on the south side of Superior interchange to accelerate repair time and reduce the burden on traffic coming and going from Town Pump. The high-quality plant mix for the Superior West project, as well as for the Drexel E & W and Exit 5 East projects all currently under construction, is manufactured at Riversides state of the art mobile hot plant stationed at their recently permitted Dry Creek resource pit west of Superior.
I can cite an endless list of people in this community who now work, or who have worked, to build and maintain our county’s roads over the past several decades. I write this as a tribute to all of them. It’s an exciting and well-paying industry offering a multitude of careers, and one of the few industries which can’t be shipped overseas. I too have worked in both the private and now government sector as a road builder for 27 years, earning my way to be just another “old highway guy” like so many others.
Benda is engineering project manager for the Montana Department of Transportation at Superior.