We live in a place called Lower Saucon Township. They do the screwiest things with their roads. Every summer they dump oil and gravel on the roads to “repave” them. The gravel sticks to the oil, and with normal traffic riding over it all, it flattens out. Now this is annoying, because they do this whether the road needs it or not.
What is even more stupid is what they do every few years before. They actually take the time to put down new asphalt! This one particular road I drive every day back and forth to work just had this done. It was repaved with new asphalt a few months ago. They finally got around to painting the yellow lines in the middle literally two weeks ago. So now we have a very nice, smooth, and quiet road. No more! They dumped oil and gravel on it just this week. WHY!? These grave “paved” roads are not as smooth and as quiet. And they usually “washboard” eventually, and are like that for weeks before the crews come to smooth them out. I just don’t understand the logic behind all this.
It seems like it is only this particular township, too. I have never seen this in any other one. And that road I mentioned crosses into Upper Saucon Township, and their part of the road is still the same asphalt surface that’s been there since I moved to Pennsylvania.
July 21st, 2008 at 5:18 am
Scott- you’re paying for it, taxpayer. Make ‘em explain it. Often, the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand do.
July 21st, 2008 at 8:35 am
Asphalt costs put brakes on road work
Valley municipalities find they must delay some street repairs.
By Tom Coombe
Of The Morning Call
July 21, 2008
If you own a car, you’re probably not happy with gas prices these days.
This bit of news isn’t going to make you any happier: You’re also paying more for the roads you drive on. As the cost of oil rises, so does the cost for the oil-based material used to pave and repair highways.
According to the state Department of Transportation, the price of asphalt has almost doubled since this time last year, from $329 per square ton to $603. At some point in the near future, it might affect what projects PennDOT chooses to do, said department spokesman Sean Brown.
”That’s something they’re evaluating right now,” Brown said.
But this isn’t just an issue for Pennsylvania. It’s happening nationwide.
Locally, some communities say they’ve had to dip into cash reserves to pay for road projects. That’s what South Whitehall Township did earlier this month, moving $80,000 from its state highway reserve fund to cover the cost of asphalt. Other municipalities have had to be a lot more choosy about what work gets done.
”I have had to chop a few projects, and I’m not sure the chopping is actually finished,” said Scott Kistler, head of the road department in Palmer Township.
Kistler said the price he pays for asphalt has gone up 25 percent since last year. Typically, he’ll try to budget more each year than the year before. This year, he came up short.
”It’s unbelievable,” he said of the price increases. ”I don’t see the end.”
Palmer hasn’t even started work on any road projects for the year, Kistler said, because he wants to ensure there’s money available for projects he’s already committed to later in the year. The situation is the same in Upper Mount Bethel, where Township Manager Maureen Sterner said some projects will have to be put off this year.
”We have been sitting down every month to see where we can readjust,” Sterner said.
Typically, Sterner would meet occasionally throughout the year with the township road foreman to discuss highway projects; this summer, it’s happening a lot more frequently, she said. Last month, Upper Mount Bethel found itself paying $138,000 for a road project — $12,000 more than the original bid awarded in March.
Even municipalities that haven’t put out bids yet expect to pay more when it comes time to do road work.
”If I was a betting man, I’d bet that the price would be higher,” said John Kasten, borough manager in Bangor.
Bethlehem has seen the cost it pays for asphalt double in the last five years, said Michael Alkhal, the city’s public works director. This year, the city is paying almost 90 percent more than in 2003.
”Our budgets are not going as far as they used to,” Alkhal said.
When it comes to smaller repairs handled in-house, Bethlehem uses a database to decide which streets to work on. The city uses a variety of factors, including how worn the road is, and how much traffic uses it.
”Instead of doing ‘X’ number of roads, we’ll have to do a little less,” this year, Alkhal said.
In Allentown, the city’s budget for road work is about $750,000 a year said Rich Young, head of the public works department.
”The price of asphalt has gone up dramatically,” Young said, while the budget hasn’t. ”We’re still getting work done, but the amount of work is tailing off a little bit.”
The situation is similar all over the country, according to a news release from the Associated General Contractors of America issued last week. In the first two weeks of July alone, the cost of asphalt jumped 40 percent in several parts of the country, said the association’s chief economist, Ken Simonson. He warned that Congress may need to pass additional highway construction funds to allow states to keep awarding contracts.
”Other public agencies, as well as private owners, must adjust their budgets promptly to reflect the new price realities for construction,” he said.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:00 am
I am not actually paying the taxes. My mother-in-law is. However, that is a good suggestion, Roger.
Thanks for the bit of interesting reading, John. Wonder why Lower Saucon Township continues to spend the money to repair roads that are not in need of repair.