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Commissioner Jeff Rader
Manuel J. Maloof Center
1300 Commerce Drive
5th Floor
Decatur, GA 30030
(404) 371-2863
jrader@co.dekalb.ga.us
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| Commissioner Rader Update |
| Oct 24, 2008 |
Roads: Paving the Way
by Jeff Rader
One tool for DeKalb County to stretch its operating budget is to capitalize on federal and state funding programs. One source of state funding is the Local Assistance Road Program (LARP), which pays for resurfacing projects on roads maintained by the county.
LARP is administered by the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT). Funding for LARP comes from the Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax that consumers pay each time they buy gasoline for their cars.
To cover its budget shortfall, the Georgia DOT has proposed elimination of the LARP program. This action would have to be approved by the Georgia General Assembly, which needs to hear from you on this subject.
Every year, in the late summer or early fall, each county submits to GDOT a list of proposed road resurfacing projects. GDOT consolidates the lists from the respective counties, rank orders each proposed project based on need, and decides which projects to fund, based on available money. GDOT then works in conjunction with the counties to coordinate the planning and execution for each LARP-funded project.
The cycle for each round of LARP projects is time consuming, which is why wish lists are now being submitted for roadwork in the 2010 calendar year. Funding has already been awarded for road projects in 2009.
To qualify for the LARP, a road must have a 30 or higher rating from the county roads division. The rating system, derived from GDOT's pavement condition rating system, evaluates multiple factors in a road's deterioration. A road will be rated between 0 (best) and 60 (worst).
The DeKalb Board of Commissioners, at its August 12 meeting, approved its 2010 LARP wish list, prepared by the county Roads and Drainage Division. The 2010 LARP list has a total of 50.05 miles of road resurfacing projects in the county, of which 5.01 miles (10 percent) are in District Two.
The LARP wish list accounts for a fraction of the roads in DeKalb County that need resurfacing. According to the county roads division, there is a backlog of roughly 330 miles of roads that are rated at 30 or higher, of which approximately 42 miles (13 percent) are in District Two.
As with most wish lists, not everything on DeKalb's list will be funded by LARP. Typically, 10 to 20 percent of the proposed projects will be approved for LARP. In 2008, LARP is funding approximately 22 miles of roadwork in the county. Next year, the number will be about 27 miles.
Further, LARP funding does not pay for the entire cost of those resurfacing projects on the LARP approved list. Each county resurfacing project consists of preparation work, patching, milling (if needed) and the actual resurfacing. The county must pay for the first three phases while LARP pays for the final resurfacing. The county's portion currently accounts for about 60 to 65 percent of the final cost.
Those projects that do not make the LARP approved list must be funded by the county's general operating budget, which had virtually no increase this year. To fund the backlog of 330 miles mentioned earlier would cost an estimated $83 million. By comparison, the county's general budget provided about $3.5 million this year for resurfacing projects.
If those two dollar figures remain static, quick calculations suggest that it would take more than 20 years to clear the backlog. But the backlog list, of course, does not remain static. More "bad" roads with 30 or higher ratings are added to the list on an ongoing basis as county inspectors complete road evaluations.
So far in 2008, an estimated 12 miles have been added to the list of roads in need of resurfacing. In 2006, an estimated 14 miles were added to the list. [The numbers for 2007 are not listed because a voter-approved bond allowed the county to catch up by using the one-time funding to subtract roughly 28 miles worth of roads from the list.]
The county's current budget does not provide the finances needed to catch up on the road-resurfacing list. Roads compete for county dollars along with other county services and infrastructure maintenance. History suggests that future county budgets will be similarly hard pressed to provide the necessary funding for roads, unless there is a change in government priorities or funding mechanisms.
For further information, click on the following links to see documents related to county road resurfacing projects.
http://www.commissionerrader.com/issues/issue28_files/LARP_2008_List.pdf
http://www.commissionerrader.com/issues/issue28_files/LARP_2009_List.pdf
http://www.commissionerrader.com/issues/issue28_files/LARP_2010_Requests.pdf
The county transportation department maintains this master project list which is updated monthly:
http://www.co.dekalb.ga.us/RoadsAndDrainage/pdf/pavingList.pdf
(Commissioner Jeff Rader represents District Two on DeKalb County's Board of Commissioners. He was elected to the position in 2006 for a four-year term.) |
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