The Cass County Road Commission will soon be taking care of some much needed work to the area’s roadsides, using the newest addition to its fleet of machinery.

The agency wrapped up the purchase of a lightly-used Maddock Model 160 Ditcher last week for $85,000. The hydraulically powered drill will be used to create new ditches alongside rural roadsides, as well as to clear out older trenches that have since become obstructed, said Road Commission Director Steve Lucas.

The maintenance of roadside ditches is a critical part of road crews’ responsibilities, though it previously required extensive manpower and equipment needs, costing the commission around $6,800 per day, Lucas said.

“Quite a bit of that work has fallen to the wayside, since the funding wasn’t there to support it,” Lucas said. “Now we can get back into it and do it more cost efficiently than traditional methods.”

Using the new ditcher, though, only a single person is needed to pull the tractor containing the drill, only costing $1,800 per day. In addition, the machine will allow the commission to ditch around 4 to 5 miles per day, compared to only half or three-quarters of a mile using previous methods.

“Anywhere we can use this to replace the traditional process, we will,” Lucas said.

The director was first introduced to the potential power of the ditcher during a demonstration he attended in Indiana this summer, he said. Several weeks ago, the commission had a chance to try out the Maddock ditcher for a couple days, and were impressed by the speed with it created the roadside trenches.

“We weren’t actually intending on making a purchase, but the machine only had 1,200 hours on it, and we could get it at half the price of a new one,” Lucas said.

While it’s priority focus will be on creating new ditches for upcoming paving projects, the ditcher will play an invaluable role in clearing out ditches on roadways with issues draining water. Accumulated water presents a number of problems for roadways, weakening pavement and putting drivers in danger.

“A machine like this gives us an immediate return on investment,” Lucas said. “It’s exiting to buy something that can do that and allow us to accomplish more with fewer people.”