Scott Pehringer replaces Craig Cronk as Road and Bridge Supervisor.  Scott has been with Johnson County for many years.  The staff in this department as a whole has accumulated over 150 years of service to the county.  Dean Firnekas, the most senior member of the crew, has been with Johnson County for nearly 30 years. 

     The goal of the department is to maintain roads, cattleguards, culverts and bridges in the county so county residents and users from the mineral industries can travel safely.  Traffic counts taken on roads in Eastern Johnson County indicate that close to 850 vehicles per day likely travel there.  That is about 500 times the traffic the roads were designed for.  Needless to say, upkeep is difficult at best.

     Gravel is the newest premium commodity in the county, and finding a quality source near a project is becoming increasingly difficult.  This will make it harder to budget enough funds to cover increased fuel and labor costs for resurfacing projects.  Therefore, alternate aggregates, such as RAP and CBT, are being located and used to mix with gravel to create a surface that is more able to withstand the heavy traffic many of the roads are receiving.

     If you have questions or concerns that can be addressed by the Johnson County Road and Bridge, please call the office at 684-2262 or email them at cbenner@johnsoncowy.us.

Current Projects

Cattleguard Replacement project – Dead Horse Road, Upper Powder River and Schoonover Roads

Coal bed methane development has been concentrated in Eastern Johnson County, and is steadily increasing.  This has increased the amount of traffic on many county roads in the area, with Dead Horse, Upper Powder River, and Schoonover Roads being hit the hardest.  Cattleguards on these roads were not built to handle the volume of traffic, much of which is heavy, industrial traffic.  Therefore, to help insure the safety of area residents and coal bed methane operators, Johnson County has implemented a plan to upgrade the cattleguards on the roads with the most use.  Anadarko Petroleum, Williams Petroleum, Prima, and Petrox have already made contributions to this venture.   Western Gas and Yates Petroleum have also agreed to contribute.  Replacement will begin soon, weather permitting.

Dust Suppression

Dust has become a hot topic, precipitated by the continued drought and increase in traffic.  A dust suppressant was successfully applied on a portion of Upper Powder River Road to help control the dust created by increased traffic from two gravel pits operating in the area.  In keeping with Johnson County’s policy, companies operating in the area reimbursed Johnson County for the cost of the dust suppressant, and Johnson County supervised the application of the product.  As production at the gravel pits will continue, plans are underway for another application this spring.