BENTONVILLE -- Benton County officials plan to pave about 53 miles of roads next year, continuing a program adopted this year.
Jeff Clark, the county's public services administrator, said the county completed all but two projects on its 2015 work list.
The county proposed paving projects for 2015 that totaled about 53 miles with a $2.2 million paving budget. In 2014, the county initially planned to pave about 34 miles of county roads. The work was reduced to about 22 miles after officials cut the department's budget by $450,000 to pay for rural ambulance service.
The two 2015 projects left undone were victims of wet weather, said Clark, who oversees the Road Department.
"Patton Road we did not get to," Clark said. "It's about two miles, and it was weather-related, the sub-grade is just too wet for us to pave. Guthrie Road is about one mile. It's in the same area and also weather-related. We did get 49.5 to 50 miles done, and we'll incorporate Patton and Guthrie into the 2016 plan. That will give us about 55.25 miles to do."
Clark said the county will target new road paving projects, not including Patton and Guthrie roads, with a paving budget of about $2.7 million. The project list includes 24.5 miles of new construction asphalt paving work; 13.75 miles of new construction double chip and seal work; and 15 miles of single chip and seal overlay paving work. Weather will again play a large role in determining what the county is able to accomplish, Clark said.
"We're going to get more than that, weather permitting" Clark said of the 2016 program. "This year we had 67 inches of rain whereas normal is about 40-something inches. If we do more, it'll be overlays."
The department is working to balance new paving and overlay work on already paved roads with maintenance and improvement of dirt and gravel roads, Clark said. The county is buying new equipment, like a paving machine in 2016, to allow it to complete paving plans with county crews rather than paying a contractor, he said.
County Judge Bob Clinard thinks the county can do more road work than the 2016 plan calls for. He expects to ask the Quorum Court for more money for materials next year since the Road Department's budget was cut in those areas to allow for some capital equipment purchases.
"My goal is to make them have to consider more money," Clinard said of the justices of the peace. "It's a friendly competition. We hope to have the good weather and see the Road Department get this amount of work done and then some."
Clark is working on the county's program for 2017, but hasn't finalized the list of roads that will be in the plan. He hopes to have something to present to the justices of the peace when the Transportation Committee meets Jan. 14.
Pat Adams, justice of the peace and chairman of the Transportation Committee, is pleased with the work of the Road Department.
"If you've got a 53-mile goal, and you make 50 miles of it, that's pretty good," Adams said.
Adams wants to see the county do as much paving work as possible, saying it will reduce work and expenses in the future.
"The maintenance work on paved roads is a lot less than it is on dirt roads," he said.
Kurt Moore, justice of the peace, said he's comfortable with the volume of work the Road Department proposed for 2015 and 2016.
"They seem to have been able to do almost all of it in 2015, so I'm good with that," Moore said. "Obviously, things can happen, but under ideal or even normal circumstances it's doable."
The county has to balance road work, and Clinard has done so, Moore said.
"I think he's very concerned about making sure the roads we have stay in good shape," Moore said. "He's been very aggressive in trying to pave new roads, but he's not shortchanging the existing roads to pave new roads."
Kevin Harrison, justice of the peace, said population growth adds to the pressure on the Road Department.
"I think the Road Department has been making good progress," Harrison said. "We're always going to have complaints. I told someone just recently if we had a billion dollars we could put every bit of it into the roads and still have work to do. I'd like to see us be able to do everything, but the reality is we have fiscal restraints. We're doing more than what we've managed to do in the past."
Barry Moehring, justice of the peace, will challenge Clinard for the Republican Party nomination for judge in the March 1 primary. Moehring said he would change the way the county determines its road work plan.
"We need to be more data-driven, we need to be more collaborative," he said. "We need to take into account both current and future needs. I have no doubt the Road Department does a fine job paving the roads they're asked to pave. But we need a true transportation program that the county develops in collaboration with other entities -- the cities, the school districts, emergency services and others. We need a transportation plan that addresses all those needs and what we're setting up for the future from a collaborative standpoint."
County Road Plan
Benton County's 2016 road work plan is posted on the county's website at www.bentoncountyar.gov, according to Jeff Clark, the county's public services administrator. The list includes the individual road projects by name, length and location of the road; type of work; estimated cost of the work; justification for the work; justice of the peace district in which the road is located; and the criteria the county uses to select roads for inclusion in the work plan.
Source: Benton County
General News on 12/30/2015