Funding issues add

to spring road problems

By RINDI WHITE-Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU -- Ask someone involved in building or maintaining roads and they'll say spring is the most problematic time for roads. In addition to problems resulting from breakup and roads that are very susceptible to damage from heavy loads, it's spring when construction begins on road projects and when the clock starts ticking on projects that must be completed before fall's freeze.

In addition to busy schedules, spring is when phone calls about potholes, impassable roads and, sometimes, people unable to get in or out of their home due to flooding.

Some calls are about problems borough road officials have been struggling with for years. The problems, according to Mat-Su Borough Public Works Director Jim Swing, stem from Alaskans' can-do attitude toward road construction.

"We don't have as many problems as we used to," Swing said. People moved into areas and built service roads out of whatever materials were nearby, Swing said. As the area grew and developed, those roads served more and more people and eventually became borough-owned and maintained roads.

Of the 1,025 miles of borough roads in the Mat-Su, about 200 miles are substandard roads, said Mat-Su Borough Roads Superintendent Richard Stryken.

"They started out as trails," Stryken said. "They should still be classified as trails, or pioneer access."

Problems with roads can also be linked to the makeup of the area they're in, of course. In areas with springs and soft ground, road failures are common. Many such roads are in the Lazy Mountain area, Stryken said. In such cases, it's not a problem that can be fixed by simply hauling gravel in to patch the hole. When that happens, Swing said, it ends up being a very expensive hole in the ground. What needs to happen, he said, is the road must be dug out and refilled, strengthening the weak spot.

Unfortunately, that type of work can't be done immediately -- it takes a little drying time before that can take place, Stryken said. He generally tries to get roads to a point that they're passable, then allow the problem to dry and schedule it to be fixed. In the case of one Lazy Mountain resident, that meant being stuck at home for three days at the end of an impassable road. Another problem crops up in the spring as well -- the problem that road funding only goes so far.

"Every spring on Lazy Mountain the roads break up," Swing said. "That RSA doesn't have a heck of a lot of money."

RSAs, or road service areas, are a funding mechanism used by the borough to fund road maintenance and, to some extent, construction. Lazy Mountain is in RSA 19, and each property owner pays 1.53 mills, or $153 for every $100,000 of property owned, to cover road maintenance in the area. Each year, the road service area nets about $18,000 in project funding. That, Stryken said, doesn't go far.

"Anything over $2,000 is subject to Davis Bacon wages," Stryken said, which quickly eats up any project funding available.

Hilary Leiss spent six years as RSA 19's sole road supervisor and just tendered his resignation last week. As the only road area supervisor, Leiss spent a lot of time working with borough public works staff, other road service area supervisors and the Lazy Mountain Community Council, who approved funding lists and project recommendations Leiss put forward. The RSA program generally allows for three supervisors, who meet regularly to make those decisions and forward them to the borough assembly.

Leiss said for a number of years, the amount of additional funding coming into the RSA due to new home construction balanced out the need for road improvements. Some money, he said, would generally be left over from the last year's maintenance funds and that overage was often enough to cover maintenance needs.

"We always have spring breakup," Leiss said. "Last year, it didn't cost us anything. This year it's going to cost."

He said the community has been considering raising the mill levy, but recently passed a resolution conveying their wish that the borough finish repaving Clark-Wolverine Road before upping the mill levy to 1.80.

That would be the first bump in the mill levy the area has agreed to in several years, despite recommendations from the borough public works department that it be raised.

"They've tried to raise it up here, but people haven't wanted it," Leiss said.

The mill levy may be up in the air at this point, however, because Leiss' departure, he said, means decisions for the RSA will be made by the borough public works department.

While the roads on Lazy Mountain may have problems unique to the area, the problem of funding is far from a problem for RSA 19 alone. A few years ago, roads in the Bogard area from Trunk Road to Wasilla-Fishhook Road were in similar shape. RSA supervisors in that area, Stryken said, took the problem in hand and have nearly whipped it.

"They've had an aggressive plan for the last six years of paving," Stryken said. "Now we're lowering the mill rates again."