BENTONVILLE -- Benton County is re-evaluating the 2017 plans for the Road Department and will have about $750,000 in state aid money to spend on county road projects, Judge Barry Moehring said.
Moehring recently met with state Highway and Transportation Department officials to discuss the county's state aid allocation for the state's 2018 fiscal year, which begins July 1. Benton County is projected to receive $343,536 beginning July 1, according to the Highway Department. That will be added to $406,126 already available to the county.
David Mayo, state aid engineer with the Highway Department, said the money is allocated to the counties under a formula set by state law. Half the state aid money is divided equally among the 75 counties, according to the law. Of the remainder, 25 percent is allocated according to the area of each county in proportion to the state and 25 percent according to the rural population of the county in proportion to the rural population of the state.
If a county doesn't use state aid money, it is returned after three years to be redistributed, Mayo said. Since the program began to distribute money in 1974, Benton County has been allocated $11.5 million and returned only $81,604.38, according to information from the Highway Department.
The money can be used for road work and also for bridges that meet the criteria set by the state, Mayo said. Sometimes projects are done in conjunction with federal Highway Administration money. In 2013, Benton County obtained approval of a $1.1 million project to replace the Colonel Meyers Road Bridge, he said. With federal funds paying for $888,206 of the cost and state aid providing another $199,846, Benton County was able to contribute just $22,205 to the project, Mayo said. Most projects done with state aid are done on a 90-10 split, with the county providing just 10 percent of the cost.
"It's a real good deal," Mayo said.
The county hasn't focused on any specific projects for the state aid money, Moehring said. The county is working on an agreement with a company that will do a survey of the county's paved roads and provide a video record of their condition, he said. Moehring plans to have an amended 2017 road plan, with state aid projects, in the near future.
"That will still give us time to do a project this year," he said.
Pat Adams, justice of the peace and chairman of the county's Transportation Committee, said he knows of a number of county roads that are good candidates for state aid projects. Adams hopes the county can do more to connect county roads to the major cities.
"These are roads that are heavily travelled," Adams said. "People use it as a shortcut to Bentonville or Rogers. But it's getting to be where what was a 15-minute drive five years ago is now a 45-minute drive."
General News on 02/08/2017