Park County, Colorado, Tax Payers Shouldn't Pay for Recent Road Repairs

Ask anyone who lives in the small town of Bailey, Colorado, what they think of Park County Road and Bridge, and I'm sure that they will give you an earful. Beautiful Park County, Colorado, has some of the worst county-maintained roads in rural Colorado, especially in the small town of Bailey, which sits right on Jefferson and Park counties' lines. Constant rain this summer hasn't been kind to the already damaged roads in the town, and there were enough complaints from residents, that something had to be done. So, that's just what they intended to do.

Park County Road and Bridge decided to undertake a Chip-Seal repair on Park County Road 43 and Park County Road 72. This type of repair is performed on asphalt roads, and like government regulated industries, there are specifications that need to be met to insure that the job is done correctly. Well, apparently no one told Road and Bridge this. This type of repair requires, among many other requirements, the road to be graded down so that the damaged layers of road have been removed, to lay layers of clean specification gravel down and seal over it with hot oil, and to do this until the road is once again at the original state, with no moisture on the road. If one of these steps is done incorrectly, or the materials that are being used are not to specification then the road will not hold, and will have to be ripped up and done again.

While not everyone that resides in Park County is a Road and Bridge expert, they don't need to be to know that this well overdue fix will not hold. I have heard from more than one non-expert resident that they don't believe that the road will hold out past March of next year, some have given an even grimmer time frame for yet another necessary road repair. These opinions of the non-expert residents closely match the opinion of the people that do know exactly what they are talking about.

The specification gravel that needed to be used in order to make this repair is probably the largest issue. This type of gravel is tricky, it needs to be a specific size, it needed to be clean and washed, and it needs to have nothing less that three fractured sides. If anyone of these things is wrong, the road will fail. If course this all makes sense if you think about it. This size makes a difference depending on how finely you want the road to be finished, and everyone likes a smooth ride! If the gravel has dirt on it, the oil won't stick to the rock, it will only stick to the dirt. If the rock is round, the oil wont stick to it either, the rock isn't porous enough to be bound together. The correct equipment and materials to do this type of job is important, so is the understanding and knowledge to do it.

Well, we know that Road and Bridge has the equipment, the Commissioner in charge of Road and Bridge made sure of that. After being put into office, Road and Bridge managed to get new motor graders, dump trucks, and various other pieces of equipment. I would think that the Director of Road and Bridge would have some type of knowledge in the undertaking of this type of job. I'm sure there are requirements for being the Director of a county department. However, the Director of Road and Bridge has made it clear to more than one person that he had an extreme dislike for the town of Bailey. Whether it is the residents or just the roads he doesn't care for is unclear.

That would leave the material used as one of the key problems with the roads. If you live in the Bailey area, please do this: stop at a spot where this work has taken place, you will see piles of gravel on the sides of the roads. Get out of your vehicle and look at the gravel, pick it up. Sift though it, you will find dirty round river rock gravel, in various sizes and all mixed up. I would like to say that it's the left over material from when they did the job, that it got dirty and mixed up after they swept the road, but I can't say that and be honest. That also wouldn't account for the round river rock.

The truth of the matter is, if the rock was clean when they brought it in for the job, it wasn't clean when they put the oil on it. The gravel sat on the road, extremely deep, with people driving on it for weeks before they did anything with it. The gravel was so deep in some places, namely intersections, that it was almost causing accidents. People couldn't help but fish-tail around some of the corners, inadvertently spraying gravel either off of the road or into oncoming traffic. They also created a ridge in the middle of a main road because they inappropriately graded the road down. This ridge in the middle of the road is hard on tires, unsightly and hazardous. The main road has been like this for more than five weeks now. In addition to the various automotive issues that are being caused by this road work, there have been residents complaining about respiratory problems since the road work has begun. The fumes from the oil and equipment in combination with the dust that the work is kicking up are terrible. While Road and Bridge had gotten most of the loose gravel off of the "repaired" road, they have piles of it along the sides of the road, which is still causing problems for residents. Sometimes there are little round rocks that work much like little ball bearings on the pavement, also causing near misses.

Coming up on the Park County ballot there is a request for a sales tax increase for Park County road maintenance. In Referendum 1A, they are requesting a 2.5 percent sales tax increase to be used solely for road maintenance and resurfacing. This is an extremely small increase per person, and personally I believe that this is good justification for a higher increase. While I support the increase in the sales tax, and will gladly pay it, I wonder if that might be good justification to higher a private contractor to do the road maintenance, reclamation, and resurfacing. I don't think that it's just that Park County ran out of money for their road and bridge department. I also understand that the Director of Road and Bridge hasn't made very many friends with past, present or potential gravel vendors. I really believe that there are games being played here, and no one is coming up with an good answers or excuses. Several people, including myself, have attempted to make contact and ask questions of the Park County Commissioners. There is no one returning phone calls, faxes, e-mails or regular good old fashioned snail mail in the Commissioners' Offices. I have a pretty good feeling that every Commissioner that is coming up for re-election had better start looking for a different job (so I have heard on the rumor mill, I have friends in all places, if you catch my drift).

So, the questions remain unanswered, and the road remains in disrepair. Why would the Director of Road and Bridge not follow the specifications set by the governmental standards? Why would the Commissioners retain an employee that seemed to make expensive and easily noticeable mistakes? Why isn't the Road and Bridge department held up to the same expectations and requirements as another contractor doing the same work (they do it correctly the first time to avoid costly warrantee work)? When are we ever going to have decent, safe roads to drive on? The most important question is, how many times are the Park County residents going to have to pay for the same road repairs until they are done correctly?