In the October 8, 2013 City Council meeting, I asked what process is used to determine which roads are fixed first.
I then proposed the following outline for an objective process to determine which roads are fixed first.
1. Consider how heavily traveled the road is. The roads used by the most people should have some priority associated with them for maintenance. Roads that service businesses should also be considered a priority, since we want to keep businesses in our city!
2. Consider the current condition of the road. Is it the worst road in the city, in fair shape, or just recently repaved? We need to be careful about not wasting the money we have for roads.
3. Consider when the road was last maintained. Was it 30 years ago? 50 years ago? We should maintain a list, with the date of last repairs, and what those repairs were, for every road segment in the city. The city does use a program that lists every road segment in the city, but it currently doesn't contain historical information about the date of last repairs for those road segments. It does list the current condition of those segments, based on analysis by university engineering students.
Then it's just a matter of making a prioritized list, and addressing the highest priorities first. There should be a formula weighting the above 3 criteria, so that the most urgent needs are addressed first. We may also want to take the oldest road segment (the one that hasn't been repaired longer than any other road), and address that road. Doing that once a year, or even once a quarter, would get to some of the literally crumbling roads in some of our older subdivisions, that otherwise might never be addressed.
By having a prioritized list of every road segment in the city, decisions can be objectively made about where to apply road funds as they become available in the budget.
Carlton Bowen
American Fork City Council candidate
Vote No on the Bond!
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