Cement cost delays work on Spangle-Waverly Road

Twenty-eight hundred tons and what do you get?

Nothing, if you’re talking about Spangle-Waverly Road.

Spokane County officials said recently that the price of cement is so high, they’re going to wait at least another year to reconstruct 5 1/2 miles of Spangle-Waverly Road from Spangle east.

This is the second year in a row that commissioners decided to delay the project because of cement prices.

The project requires about 2,800 tons of cement, and a worldwide shortage is causing large price increases in the material, said county engineer Ross Kelley.

The Spokane County roads department plans to grind the current road and mix it with cement to create a structure much more sound than the crumbling pavement that exists, Kelley said.

In 2005, no company bid on the project. This year one company submitted a bid 26 percent higher than the county’s estimate for the project, $417,000.

In the meantime, road crews will keep patching up the road, Kelley said.

Once the project is complete, “we’re taken care of for a long time,” he said.