Vigo maintains roads with more people driving, increased costs

May 31—Highway maintenance for Vigo County has changed over the past two to three decades, relying more on shorter term maintenance plans to better manage roadwork and long-term costs.

It's a strategy that requires more upfront costs.

"We do spend quite a bit of money as resurfacing costs are probably 30% to 40% higher than it was 15 years ago," said Larry Robbins, Vigo County engineer/highway superintendent.

"We also have more people driving and using the roads, more people from out of town and out of state, so I think overall people use the roads more than in the past so you get a lot more wear and tear," on the county roads, Robbins said.

"Honestly, we are paying for road maintenance that was not done 20 to 30 years ago. That is what is biting us now, that is what we are fighting to get ahead of the curve," Robbins said.

Between crack sealing, chip and sealing, and new pavement, Vigo County improves "50 to 60 miles a year. We are paving about 45 miles this year and that is not counting our chip and seal and crack sealing work," Robbins said.

Vigo County's road maintenance budget is about "20% more than it was five years ago. Some of that has to do with matching the state's Community Crossings [road improvement grant program], which helps us stretch that dollar amount out," Robbins said.

As an example, receiving a $1 million Community Crossings grant requires the county to match that with $1 million, however, it gives the county $2 million for road work.

Additionally, Robbins said, county commissioners and the Vigo County Council have dedicated more dollars out of the county's Economic Development Income Tax and increased funding to the county highway budget to match those grants for road work.

The county highway budget includes the Local Motor Vehicle Highway fund, which encompasses money from a county wheel tax.

"It is a lot easier for the county to maintain as a lot of our roads are narrow and two lanes, so we can stretch that dollar out a little farther to get more improvements, versus a municipality or heavy urban areas" or even the state with highways, Robbins said.

Vigo County spends about $5.5 million for road improvements, "and that has been the average for the past three to four years.

"The state gas tax has been raised and INDOT [Indiana Department of Transportation] tracks how that is spent. They [state officials] keep forecasting the fuel tax to go down with more efficient cars and electric cars, but our revenue keeps going up, which shows me that more people are driving or driving more," Robbins said.

Unlike 20 years ago, Robbins said the county maintains a five-year asset management plan that is submitted to the Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program through a partnership with Purdue University. The program offers technical assistance and training to all counties, cities and towns to improve public agency management for value and quality control.

Road maintenance, as well as annual funding, can also be weather dependent, Robbins said.

"We had a mild winter so it did not impact our local budget as much and we are ahead of the curve this year. Two years ago we had 70 miles of pavement that blew up [due to weather-related pot holes]," he said, which hit the highway department's budget.

The county maintains 840 miles of road (which includes both directions of a two-lane road) and 200 bridges.

While the county receives federal funds for bridge work, costs have risen reducing the number of bridges that can be addressed annually.

The county this year completed a new bridge at 13th Street and Elizabeth over Lost Creek for $1.8 million.

In 2018, a bridge on Wallace Avenue over Thompson Ditch cost just over $1 million, "so that is an $800,000 bump," Robbins said. "On average we can do one bridge a year. Last year we did a couple but this year we will not do any."

Bridge funding, Robbins said, will need additional funds, something that could be addressed in the coming years through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

On roadways, Robbins said the county is showing improvement.

"We had a study a few years ago and our average was below five on a one to 10 scale. Now we are approaching a six, so we are trending upwards," Robbins said.

Howard Greninger can be reached at 812-231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com. Follow on Twitter @TribStarHoward.