Porter County prioritizing road projects if extra funds are available
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being bad and 10 being perfect, 45% of Porter County’s 800 miles of roads are rated at 4 or lower on the Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating system devised by Michigan Technological University.
The Porter County Council on Tuesday asked Bob Thompson, the county’s executive director of Development and Storm Water Management, to put together a priority list should they be able to provide an additional $3.5 million in funding for road improvements as they did in 2021.
As it stands now, the 2022 county budget allots $4.1 million for road projects, all of which are planned for major county roads, none in subdivisions. “I have been playing around with that, what roads I would present to officials,” Thompson responded, saying he has 12 roads in mind that would cost around $3 million to repair. “I’m probably not going to get anything above a 2 (on the PASER rating),” he added.
Currently, $1.5 million in highway funds from the state are being used for 15 miles of in-house chip and seal projects, and crack-sealing projects that are contracted out. A $2 million Community Crossings Grant will pay for 14 miles of asphalt projects. That figure includes $1 million in matching funds from the state. “From the looks of it, it’s going to come in over estimate just because of the increase in oil prices we’ve seen over the past four months,” said Highway Supervisor Jim Polarek.
Sixty miles of roads that were paved in the last four to five years will be crack-sealed. “By crack-sealing that we can keep that water out from those roads and slow deterioration,” Polarek said.
“We are woefully behind on the maintenance of these roads through the fault of no one in particular,” said Porter County Council Vice President Mike Jessen, R-4th District. This observation was reinforced by a strategy comparison given by Polarek and Thompson that showed 553 miles, or 70%, of the county’s roads will need to be reconstructed in the next five years.
“These are roads designed 30 years ago that are taking more of a beating with increased traffic,” Polarek said. He and Thompson explained that under the county’s current strategy roads will slowly deteriorate, but if an additional $2 million per year is added to the
roads and paving budget the county would gain ground, while an additional $4 million in spending per year would greatly improve the quality of Porter County’s roads.
Thompson explained that inflation is significantly affecting how far the money goes. The cost of asphalt, for example, was estimated at $70 to $80 per ton, with a cost of living increase built in. In reality, today’s market has a price of $105 to $125 per ton. “For today’s dollars you probably need to go $5, $5.5 million,” Thompson said of the $4 million allotment.
The county has 471.3 miles of asphalt roads and 281.4 miles of chip and seal roads. Within the asphalt category are 200 subdivisions, many that are 50 to 60 years old. Polarek said bids would need to go out within the next month and Thompson said he would send engineers out to do quick core analysis of roads in question.
“In terms of maintaining and taking care of the infrastructure, that’s at the heart of government responsibility,” Jessen said. “We need to be prepared to step up and make funding available.” He added that while it’s not possible to spend the $100 million that has been bandied about as the price tag to fix all county roads, the council must keep plugging along.
“We’re not broke and we need to figure out how to spend these monies wisely and I can’t think of anything better than fixing the roads,” said Porter County Council Member Mike Brickner, R-At-large.