Genoa's Main Street north of downtown on Jan. 17, 2017, before the county spent $4.4 million to fix Jacks Valley Road.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
In a real-life instance of an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure, the difference between maintaining a mile of road and rebuilding one is well north of $1 million, which just happens to be most of what Douglas County budgets for roads every year.
At last week’s budget hearings, Public Works Director Phil Ritger said the cost for doing a slurry seal for an average width road costs around $50,000-$55,000 a mile. While road maintenance is an annual effort, roads don’t need to be sealed every year.
Transportation Manager Jon Erb said Jacks Valley Road, one of the county’s longest routes, is scheduled for a slurry seal that’s likely to eat the entire $700,000 that year.
“People don’t see the need to do it because they feel the road is smooth, but there is a method behind it to extend that pavement life,” he said.
Jacks Valley cost $4.4 million to rebuild in 2017, which was paid for with the nickel gas tax increase commissioners approved in December 2015.
The county had previously rebuilt it in 1990. During the winter of 2017, the road was not only a mess of cracks and potholes but became critical when Cradlebaugh Bridge was closed by high water on Jan. 9 and Feb. 10 of that year, sending tens of thousands of commuters through Genoa.
“I don’t know if people remember how Buckeye or Jacks Valley were then, but it was almost like driving on dirt roads,” Transportation Manager Jon Erb said. “Buckeye had 8-12-inch cracks. Increasing the gas tax did a lot of good in this county, and we need to move forward and do something similar.”
According to Ritger, rebuilding a two-lane road to rural standards is running $1.3 million, while a city street with curbs and gutters is running around $2 million a mile.
“The idea of maintaining roads is much better than letting them deteriorate to the point where you have to redo them,” Ritger said.
County Manager Jenifer Davison said there is roughly $1.2 million for road maintenance in East Fork Township and $1.4 million at Lake Tahoe.
“We’re not talking about buying a lot of maintenance for that,” she said. “This doesn’t begin to address the $50 million backlog. This county has been kicking this can for 20-plus years, now.”
Davidson said county officials plan a road workshop to discuss the issue toward the end of the month.