When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you 3,000 tons of exploded rock, turn it into city roads.

With Marthasville’s new well and water tank north of town nearing completion, city leaders are moving to make use of the rubble from the hillside that was blasted away to level the project area. Having anticipated that rock from the project area would be useful, the city directed contractors to crush the rock to a uniform size and collect it on-site while they were doing the site blasting in the spring.

Now, rather than having to pay to haul the rock out of town just to dump it somewhere, city officials say they’re planning to extend unpaved portions of city roads and lay foundations that could eventually be turned into paved streets as needed. That will save the city on hauling expense and produce some public benefit, said Alderman Nick Lange.

“It’s 2,100 (cubic) yards, 3,000 tons. ... It was cheap to get good rock while we were blasting,” Lange noted. “If we’re going to haul that rock, we should look at all the areas for parking lots, or improving streets, or extending streets.”

The rock needs to be cleared from the site of the new well now so that contractors can finish ground work, fencing and paving, Lange said. He and Mayor David Lange advised that since the rock needs to be moved anyway, the city should begin immediate grading and clearing for four or five project areas where they know the rock will be beneficial.

“I’d rather not load it and move it twice,” commented Mayor Lange.
The project areas include three strips where the city has road easements that are either poorly rocked or have no rock at all; one strip where the city wants to extend a street but is waiting for a property owner to transfer an easement; and a new public parking area.

Here are the project areas in more detail:

• Jonathan Avenue: An unmarked and unrocked easement on the north side of the former hat factory site, which would connect the north ends of Two Street and Three Street.

• Fourth Street: A bend in the road, located north of Main Street, needs a half-moon cul-de-sac to support a future small housing development.

• Ozark Street/Lake Street: Currently Ozark Street connects Griswold to Hiawatha and runs a little further east. But the easement for the road actually extends much further east and is meant to connect to Highway D/Main Street via a short road called Lake Street, which is currently unmarked and unrocked. New rock could finish that connection and provide a better route for snow plowing and trash trucks.

• Fifth Street: The city wants to extend Fifth Street from Rottmann Drive to Northridge Drive. This has been a known project for the city for some time, and is pending an easement deed from a local property owner.

• Rusche Park: Parking areas are needed for the city park and the Grabs House Museum.

Alderman Lange, who works in construction engineering, estimated that the city could lay 8 inches of rock in each of the project areas and potentially have some left over. Any excess can be stockpiled at the city lagoon or used for access roads there, Lange added.

Aldermen voted 3-0 on Oct. 19 (with Chris DeVore absent) to allow Mayor David Lange to use city staff and hire Cochran Engineering, Lamke Excavating and/or Hasenjaeger Trucking on an as-needed basis to complete the projects. No cost estimate was stated at the time.