County Executive Mark Poloncarz says ten percent of the 1200 miles of county-owned roads will get repairs this summer. Repairs are planned one year in advance, and plans made last year did not anticipate the bad winter that made the county's troubled road system even worse.
The $22 million dollar plan has been increased to nearly $30 million to make up for winter damage, though Poloncarz says there may not be time to spend all the money.
The county executive is also concerned about gridlock in Washington that is letting the highway trust fund run out of cash, and the stalling of the new transportation bill, which may result in a cut in federal aid for future repairs.
Poloncarz says many of the county's more rural roads, especially those in the South Towns, are getting a lot of work because they can be repaired with oil and stone, and that work is simpler and quicker:
"Those are roads that, as you note, don't receive a tremendous amount of travel on a daily basis and therefore are much more easily fixable than, say, a road like Eden-Evans Center Road, which required a complete reconstruction, a tear-out of the current road, rebuilding of drainage lines and then sewer lines and water lines, and then putting the road back in again," said Poloncarz.
The biggest projects are the total reconstruction of parts of Hopkins Road in Amherst and Sowles Road in Hamburg. Eden-Evans Center Road is also getting a total reconstruction, but that work will be done over several years.
There will also be major oil and stone repairs on 81 miles of roads that can be worked on year-to year because they see less traffic.
Poloncarz says rising costs make keeping up with repairs more difficult, especially bridge repairs, which can be quite expensive. He says no bridges have had to close recently because there has been enough money in recent years for maintenance.
