Declining Revenues Force County to Prioritize Roads Maintenance

The nation’s sluggish economy may mean some roads in unincorporated Woodinville and surrounding areas will remain pot-holed, according to a proposal from King County staff that will go before Dow Constantine this week for approval. 

“The ambitious reforms we’ve brought to King County government are helping us sustain public services in the General Fund. However, the County Road Fund hasn’t been revisited in 25 years, and is no longer equitable or adequate,” said Constantine. “With fewer revenues, we must manage the most pressing problems that affect the most people with the resources we have. It is, in essence, triage.”

The County Road Fund is supported mostly by the local property tax, through a separate roads levy of $2.25 per thousand of assessed value. Under the state Growth Management Act, the annexation of urban unincorporated areas into cities is leaving a dramatically reduced base of property tax revenues for county roads in the unincorporated areas, according to the report.

Over the past three years, a combination of annexations, lower property valuations, and declines in gas tax revenues has led to an 18 percent decline in the Road Fund, from $128 million to $106 million. As a result, the County’s Road Services Division has had to eliminate 81 positions this year alone, according to county officials.

The 2012 Executive Proposed Budget will call for elimination of an additional 30 positions in Road Services – an overall 18.6 percent reduction of these road crews and the staff that provide support since the first of this year.

“We are sounding the alarm, informing everyone about the current situation is the purpose of this report,” said Kathy Lambert, Woodinville’s representative in the King County Council. “We have done extensive work for several years now to analyze each lane mile for its status and condition. What we found was that many roads due to dealing with weather conditions, snow, ice, floods, etcetera, age and other factors were not holding the repairs as long as expected.” 

“So we estimated what all the repairs would cost as well as the regular maintenance and preservation costs. There is a point in the lifespan of a road that if you fix it at that point you have a much reduced cost rather than waiting until after that point when the cost raises dramatically. So that was all factored in,” Lambert said.

The Growth Management Act does not consider this situation when a road is used by people all over the county and only the locals are required to pay for it, she added.
 
“Even with the annexations, 90 percent of the bridges and 73 percent of the lane miles will still remain in the rural areas which will remain the duty of King County to maintain.  So with just nearly half the people supporting the costs, we still retain over three-quarters of the cost,” Lambert said.   

King County’s recently adopted Roads Strategic Plan (see PDF) set the priorities for a tiered approach to roads maintenance: the most-used arterials will receive the highest level of maintenance, storm response and snow and ice removal, while the lowest-priority roads could be downgraded to gravel. If approved by the County Council as part of the 2012 budget process, the new service approach would take effect in January, 2012.

The new system outlines objective criteria for the ranking of each of the nearly 1,600 miles of County roadway into one of five service levels, using criteria such as volume of use by motorists, safety requirements, detour length, and whether the road is considered sole-access, a lifeline route or important for buses:

• Tier 1 (50% of the daily trips in the system) – The spine of the County road system with heavily travelled arterials connecting large communities, major services and critical infrastructure. Provides consistently reliable access and the highest level of storm response, including the first roads to receive snow and ice removal. Users of tier 1 roads should expect good road and bridge conditions and well-maintained drainage. These roads will receive the highest level of maintenance and preservation. 
• Tier 2 (20% of daily trips) – Heavily traveled roads serving less populated areas and that provide alternate routes to tier 1 roads. Provides generally reliable access, however users of tier 2 roads can expect to see a lower level of storm response and snow removal. These roads will receivemaintenance to keep them in good condition, with preservation efforts to be reactive and prioritized based on the level of risk and availability of funding.
• Tier 3 (15% of daily trips) – Highly used local roads that serve local communities and large residential areas. Provides somewhat reliable access with little to no storm and snow response, especially during significant storms. Maintenance and preservation are provided to slow deterioration, but users of tier 3 roads should expect to see wear-and-tear to roadways, possible load limits, lower posted speed limits, and long-term partial closures.
• Tier 4 (5% of daily trips) – Local residential dead-end roads that have no other outlet. Providesless reliable access with virtually no storm and snow response. Maintenance is limited to work that preserves access. Users of tier 4 roadways may see a number of one-lane roads, with some downgraded to a gravel surface, depending on the level of deterioration and availability of funding. 
• Tier 5 (10% of daily trips) – Local roads that have alternate routes available for travel in case of road closures. Provides least reliable access with virtually no storm or snow response. Limited maintenance will lead to more road deterioration. Due to poor conditions, users of tier 5 roads can expect to see some closures, which may result in longer detours and difficulty accessing property. These roads may be downgraded to a gravel surface, restricted to one lane, and have load limits and lower speed limits.

According to the report, roads in the county’s rural area are some of the oldest in the system, and are the most vulnerable to winds, floods and snow storms, running as they do alongside rivers and streams, through heavily wooded areas and at higher elevations.

Constantine said the solution for local roads will lie with the Governor’s Connecting Washington Task Force that is working on a statewide transportation package.