City, county team in dam construction

The February issue of “Public Works” magazine features a growing partnership nationwide between city and county governments in accomplishing tasks for the betterment of residents of both entities.

That commonality is not wasted in Lincoln County as Libby and county workers have joined forces recently to construct a road for the planned new city reservoir.

The job: Move about 6,000 cubic yards of stone from the city’s rock pit to the dam road site about six miles away. And, the job of hauling all that rock must be done before the “Spring Breakup,” on which this area is on the cusp, according to Lincoln County Road Department Supervisor Mark McCully.

“We probably would have closed the roads to traffic Monday had we not had a couple of good nights,” McCully said Tuesday.

McCully indicated consecutive nights of 14- and 19-degree temperatures halted the spring thaws that are a detriment to county roads when heavy equipment moves over them.

“Had we not had those two nights, we probably would have closed the roads Monday,” McCully said.

The city is using five massive dump trucks in this process and the county is contributing three.

“I just don't know what we would have done without their (the county’s) help,” said Libby City Administrator Jim Hammons.

Hammons explained city crews worked through the weekend sifting rock to attain the quantity of rock estimated for the job.

Their task then was to get all the rock at the site before the Breakup.

“We’d be shut out if we didn’t get the rock there,” Hammons said. “Once it’s there, we can work on it without traveling country roads.”

City Street Supervisor Corkey Pape estimated crews would be finished moving rock on Thursday, just in time.

“We work a lot together,” Pape said. “They help us, and we help them. And, the city is really good about letting us pay them back,” Pape said of reciprocal work.

Pape estimated it would take city crews about six weeks to complete the road to the site where contractors later will construct a concrete pad from which a crane will operate during the dam construction. Plans then are by May 1 to begin core sampling at the dam site.

By having city and county crews build the road, the city is expected to save $340,000.

“This is a great example of how the city and the county can come together to help people of the city and county,” Hammons said. “It’s a win-win for all tax payers.”