| Road Manager
What Makes a Successful County or City
Project?
by Ruth W.
Stidger, Editor-in-Chief
Money, management, and technology used properly provide key ways to
make sure road and street projects succeed.
Most heads of city and county street or road agencies will tell you
that finding needed cash provides one of their main challenges when it
comes to repairing or building local bridges and streets.
Direct taxes
Seminole County, Florida gets a good part of its funding from a
dedicated $0.01 portion of the sales tax. Originally passed for a 10-year
period in 1991, a referendum last fall renewed the tax.
The program helped the county make major improvements to the county
road system. With few state funds on the horizon, the program’s monies
will be used for those county collectors and arterials which are currently
deteriorating or failing structurally.
In California, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky warned the
state legislature that cities and counties can’t use more local taxes
for the state’s $24-billion deficit.
More than $4.5 billion in local revenues got transferred to state
coffers last year, Yaroslavsky says, reducing local road repair and other
projects. The supervisor and a group of 600 others met in Sacramento to
tell the state legislature to leave local revenues alone.
In Oregon, Washington County uses its Major Streets Transportation
Improvement Program to pay for local roads with local funds.
Serial levies have provided funding for about 30 major projects.
In the current program, the third, about $265 million will go toward
road construction and improvements through 2006.
The program is a joint effort of Washington County and the cities of
Banks, Beaverston, Cornelius, Durham, Forest Grove, Gaston, Hillsboro,
King City, North Plains, Sherwood, Tigard, Tualatin, and Wilsonville.
Federal funding
Many local projects qualify for some federal funding, when the work
they plan meets required federal specifications.
One special federal project, the Innovative Bridge Research and
Construction Program, provides both direction and money to help local
agencies, as well as state DOTs. It assists in payment for the cost of
including innovative materials and technologies in bridge repair, rehab,
replacement, and new construction.
To be eligible, the project needs to meet one or more of seven
criteria:
1. The development of new, cost-effective innovative material highway
bridge applications.
2. The reduction of maintenance costs and life-cycle costs of bridges,
including the costs of new construction, replacement, or rehabilitation of
deficient bridges.
3. The development of construction techniques to increase safety and
reduce construction time and traffic congestion.
4. The development of engineering design criteria for innovative
products and materials for use in highway bridges and structures.
5. The development of cost-effective and innovative techniques to
separate vehicle and pedestrian traffic from railroad traffic.
6. The development of highway bridges and structures that will
withstand natural disasters, including alternative processes for the
seismic retrofit of bridges.
7. The development of new nondestructive bridge evacuation technologies
and techniques.
Projects must also use materials and products that are readily
available. Work near the construction phase is given priority.
Total funding from 1998 through 2003 will reach $108 million.
Tolls as funding
Building toll roads can help cities and counties pay for needed roads
and improvements.
In California’s Orange County, a new interchange is being built at
the 73 Toll Road and Glenwood Pacific Park Drive in Aliso Viejo.
The first phase of the project includes an interim northbound on-ramp
and a permanent southbound off-ramp. Both will open late this year.
By 2005, when all phases are complete, about 11,400 cars will use the
interchange daily.
Management
The age-old question of whether local road agencies need managers or
engineers more may never be answered. But in Washington, the State DOT
encourages local road improvement by making Awards of Excellence.
The best county projects include the King County Novelty Bridge. The
replacement work put a new steel tied-arch bridge in place.
In only seven months, the new bridge was built and the old, substandard
truss span was removed.
About $4.5 million in local funds and $7.7 million in federal funds
were spent.
The best special project in the awards program was a public-private
partnership in Colville. The first phase included Wynne Street arterial
improvements and traffic calming work.
In Kentucky, the Transportation Cabinet teamed up with Pike County to
plan a new bridge for U.S. 460. The Virginia DOT plans a project to
connect to the work as well.
Phases one and two of construction started this year. Phase seven, the
end of the work, is slated for 2007.
The bridge and interchange will provide an alternate route for U.S. 460
traffic from U.S. 23, near Yeager, Kentucky.
Environmental management of road projects is a problem frequently faced
by road agencies. In fact, large cities and counties usually have one or
more employees solely dedicated to such management.
Environmental impact statements are required for bridge projects, for
example. In King County, Washington, the agency uses an EIS Process
Timeline for its South Park Bridge Project.
The EIS process, which will be completed next year looks at five bridge
design alternatives:
1. Rehabilitation of the existing bridge.
2. Replacement of the bridge with a new movable bascule-type span.
3. Replacement of the bridge with a 100-foot-high fixed-span structure.
4. Replacement of the bridge with a fixed-span structure with a height
between 60 and 70 feet.
5. No-action alternative.
Earthquake damage last year made rehabilitation or replacement
necessary.
Recycling materials
Recycled aggregates have been tested and proven successful in several
engineering applications by the Minnesota Department of Transportation, as
well as county and city public works departments. For example, Portland
cement concrete pavements are commonly recycled and used in place of
virgin aggregate as base material. In addition, over 15 Minnesota counties
have used recycled glass in road base, and more public works departments
are expected to follow, according to Minnesota’s Solid Waste Management
Co-ordinating Board.
From an engineering standpoint, recycled aggregates have similar
properties when compared to natural aggregates. The various materials used
in recycled aggregate have been proven to be as safe and easy to handle,
while also providing effective compaction. In addition, supplementing the
base with recycled glass can improve permeability and gradation. Recycled
aggregates have also been tested for potential harmful contaminants, and
no appreciable environmental impact has been detected, SWMCB reports.
Recycled aggregate may be used as an alternative or supplement to
natural aggregate. The state of Minnesota uses about 300,000 tons of
recycled concrete a year, with a good portion of it used in road bases.
The use of recycled asphalt pavement is also well established.
Reclaimed glass is still a relatively new source of aggregate
substitute and may not be available on a regular, ongoing basis. For
example, some county recycling programs may want to stockpile glass for
two to three years for use in a particular road project. Another option is
to use the material in smaller construction projects.
As a general rule of thumb, a county that generates an average of 200
tons of recycled glass per year would yield roughly a half mile of road
after blending the glass as a 10% road aggregate according to Mn/DOT
specs.
Other recycled aggregates that have been tested for various
construction applications and show promise include taconite tailings, coal
fly ash, roofing shingle waste, and scrap tires, according to the board.
Reprinted from Better Roads Magazine
October 2002 |
