Gene Turley digs out asphalt and dirt Wednesday from an area of Brainerd Road. The crew will build a better base and refill the area with asphalt.
Staff Photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Charles Shannon signals to the milling machine operator while the crew digs out asphalt and dirt from an area of Brainerd Road. The crew will build a better base and refill the area with asphalt.
Staff Photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free PressThe combination of rising petroleum costs and tight government budgets likely means area public works crews will fix fewer winter-battered roads this year.
"I'll lose one or two road projects," said Frank Campbell, special projects coordinator for the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
Oil prices directly impact the price of asphalt, Red Bank Public Works Director Wayne Hamill said.
"In some cases, it prevents us from doing resurfacing," he said.
Asphalt cost $490.45 a ton this month, compared with about $440 a ton in November, according to TDOT.
Continuing unrest in oil-producing countries of the Middle East and Libya, combined with anticipated reconstruction after earthquake and tsunami damage in Japan, mean the price of oil-based products associated with road construction won't be going down anytime soon, road officials say.
"I'm thinking it's going to go up," said Eddie Tate, Chattanooga's pavement supervisor.
This fiscal year, Chattanooga upped its paving budget from $1 million to $2.5 million. Road department officials said they plan to request $5 million in the 2012 fiscal year budget that begins July 1.
Tate said a total of eight miles was paved on five roads this year. Even with more money, he expects about the same amount of paving in the coming year, he said.
"You've got three hits when a barrel of oil goes up," he said. The costs of asphalt, fuel for paving equipment and fuel surcharges by asphalt producers all go up.
Road officials and city managers across the region said they don't expect to exceed their 2010-11 road budgets in the last few months of the fiscal year.
Honna Rogers, Signal Mountain town manager, said the city has $270,000 this year for paving.
Backhoe operator Art Snyder removes asphalt and dirt Wednesday from an area of Brainerd Road. The crew will build a better base and refill the area with asphalt.
Staff Photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free Press"I don't see us being able to transfer more money," she said.
Hamill said his crews have been able to repair damage from the hard, snowy winter by patching potholes. Typically, the city's road maintenance budget is about $150,000, he said.
Red Bank officials may wait until fall to see if oil prices go down and, if that doesn't happen, they could wait until next spring to begin repaving some streets, Hamill said.
TDOT and Chattanooga officials said they are trying new preventive measures - including sealing pavement - to reduce the number of roads that must be repaved.
Campbell said many of the 30 state road projects he has planned this year will be sealing projects rather than traditional repaving, which is much more expensive.
Many of these techniques also do not use oil-based products, so they won't be as expensive, he said.
But there is no doubt roads took a big hit this winter as snow fell on them and road crews came right behind plowing and salting, Campbell said.
"It was a rougher winter," he said.
Contact Cliff Hightower at chightower@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6480. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/CliffHightower.