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CITY  (NewsDakota.com)–Dickey County residents and ag produces are growing more and more frustrated with a “botched” project to raise County Highway 3 between Oakes and Fullerton.

The road has been closed for nearly five months, just one example of a water-logged situation in the county that has wiped out road after road, making any sort of east-west travel in the county a nightmare.

It’s our only east-west road,” says Dickey County Disaster Emergency Management Officer Charlie Russell.  “Right now, a trip that should take 15 minutes is around 100 miles.  I heard from a grain elevator that it’s costing them more than an extra $1000 a day in fuel to operate.”

While Mother Nature caused the initial problem, breakdowns in the process to raise the road are responsible for the current struggles.

The road is a farm-to-market road, bringing the project to repair it under federal management, and also bringing with it federal money.  The U.S. Department of Transportation approved a three-foot raise of the road, early this summer, and the low bid was awarded to 6D Construction of Valley City, owned by Paul Diegel.

Since the bid-letting, the project has been hit with one problem after another.

According to Dickey County Highway Superintendent Chuck Glynn, it took almost a month to get a fill permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  After that, 6D has reported problems with both equipment and manpower, although those reports have been met with some skepticism.

“I think the contractor bit off a little more than he could chew,” says Glynn.  “He has the bid, but he probably bid it too low, and he says he cannot get trucks or workers to finish the project on time.

That clock is ticking.  The deadline for finishing the project is September 18th.  Once that deadline passes, the federal money available drops to an 80%-20% match, and the contractor faces penalties of $1000 a day, leaving both the county and the contractor with extra bills to pay.

Frustrated ag producers and businesses have offered help in the form of trucks and fuel, both of which would be donated, to finish the project, but Glynn says it’s not as easy as just taking them up on their offer.

“Our second-place bidder was $50,000 higher than 6D.  If we take the free trucks and fuel, that bidder can then say to us, ‘Had I known you were going to help me, I would have bid it lower.’  We have to be really careful what we do here,” says Glynn.

Those trucks and fuel offers may yet come into play, however.  The county has a meeting with their engineer and the contractor tomorrow in Ellendale to discuss the project.  Glynn says that, should the contractor wish to take up the extra trucks and fuel offers, he will be able to, but he will be forced to pay for the services, not get them for free.

“Paul has said he will work with us,” says Glynn.  “It’s not in our best interest to get rid of our contractor right now.  It’s an option, but we need to try to finish this with 6D.”

One of the main hangups in firing the contractor at this point would be the permits for fill that were so difficult to get.  Glynn says those permits go with the contractor, not the project.

“If we fire the contractor, we may have to go through the permit process again.  That would take another month, and we would then be in October before work can even continue,” explains Glynn.

Meanwhile, what little work that has been completed may be a lost cause.  The project was started, and part of the road had enough fill deposited on it to raise it the necessary three feet.  A miscalculation of the needed fill brought the project to a stop.

Russell says that, since the project was halted, flows to the troubled area have now brought the water level back even with the new three-foot raise, which will require an additional raise over the already started part of the project.

“It’s just a botched job,” says Russell.  “Nobody is happy with it, and with harvest beginning around the area, people are really frustrated.”

Glynn says that 6D also has another project in Dickey County that they are working on, and has bids for three projects in McIntosh County as well, one that has been released, and two that have not yet been started.  All carry the $1000-a-day penalty if not completed on time.