LIMA — As Allen County Engineer Brion Rhodes announced his office’s $1.9 million final proposal for its 2017 road program, the predominant theme of the announcement was the need to “do more with less.”
The county and township road program, as currently formulated, would include paving nearly 16 miles of roadway, with the majority of the funding, to the tune of nearly $1.1 million, going to work on township roads. Just more than $653,000 will be spent on county roads.
“On county roads alone, we should be spending $2.5 million just to maintain the roads we have,” Rhodes said. “That’s the state we’re in.”
Part of the issue engineers are finding, according to Rhodes, is that the cost of materials continues to rise, while the revenue structure from the state’s fuel tax and license fees has not kept pace.
“Asphalt costs almost three times what it did 17 years ago, but we haven’t seen a gas tax increase since 2005,” he said. “We could pave a mile for $25,000 back in 2000, but today, it’s almost $70,000 to pave a mile, so the money doesn’t go very far.”
While it remains an uphill battle to maintain the county’s road and bridge infrastructure, Rhodes credited good relationships at the county and township level as a way of making the most out of what they have.
“We have great cooperation with the townships and the commissioners, and that enables us to pool our resources together and provide better service for the citizens of Allen County,” he said. “We’re always looking for federal funds or OPWC funds to coordinate with our local funding.”
Engineers anticipate using almost 438,000 gallons of sealant for patch work and more than 17,000 tons of stone between the county roads, township roads and municipalities.
“It’s all about trying to make the roads better, and the better they are, the safer they are,” Rhodes said.
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