The Washtenaw County Road Commission anticipates its budget will decrease by 25% in 2010. Spending on road projects alone will drop from 25 million in 2009 to 11.5 million in 2010 under the new Capital Improvement Plan approved by the Board of County Road Commissioners on November 3rd.
The sharp decrease in expenditures is due to a rapid decline in state and federal revenues as well as declining land development and associated road improvements by developers. This is yet another sign of the times we are all experiencing in Michigan. In a span of three years we have gone from setting an all-time record investment level to curtailing expenditures at the lowest level since 1998.
Recently, the Road Commission has dedicated a higher percentage
of the budget to perform preventative maintenance on the paved
roads in Washtenaw County; however the overall pavement condition
rating still places our county as 4th worst in the state.
Why are we still ranked as 4th worst? The short answer is we
have nearly 800 miles of paved roads that need to be
resurfaced, and we have identified enough funding to resurface
less than 50 miles per year. We recognize that we are
not keeping up with the annual pavement degradation that occurs
due to traffic and weather impacts.
In order to preserve as much of our available revenue to address the poor road conditions, the Road Commission has focused on being as efficient as possible. We are scrutinizing every aspect of our operation to save costs; our employees have identified many areas to save costs without impacting our high quality projects and maintenance services. Some of the most significant cost saving measures implemented over the last three years include:
- Reducing our fringe and overhead costs by 20%
- Reducing our staffing level by 15%
- Reducing our energy usage in our buildings
- Improving vehicle maintenance practices to stretch the service life of our large vehicles
These are all good steps in the right direction; however we also need to be realistic in that we can not save our way to adequate road funding levels. The cost saving measures that we have implemented allowed us to maintain our service levels against some very stiff head winds. The Road Commission has been facing 5 years of decreasing Michigan Transportation Funds (general fund revenue) and double digit annual inflationary pressures for road materials. The economic impacts of these pressures have combined to challenge our ability to continue business as usual. To counter these funding challenges, the Road Commission implemented a number of Service Level Adjustments this fall.
These policy changes will direct more funding towards preserving our highest traffic volume roads and bridges as well as continuing to place a high priority on routine maintenance. We will continue to provide services to the gravel roads and subdivision streets; however, we are limiting the amount of overtime work for our crews. Routine maintenance on the lower volume roads such as snow removal will occur during normal business hours.
If you have questions regarding Washtenaw County Road Funding, please contact our main office at (734) 761-1500 or via email at webmaster@wcroads.org
A message from Steven Puuri, WCRC Managing Director
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