Good news for the week, Waterloo road between Western and Santa Fe should be reopen very soon. Repair began Tuesday, July 28. The new tin horn is scheduled to be delivered Thursday, August 6th and installed Friday August 7, hopefully we can reopen Waterloo road by Monday, August 10.
The new asphalt resurface project for county road EW-87/Charter Oak from Kelley Ave East to Broadway has been delayed again by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the prime paving contractor because they are now waiting on an agreement with the rail road that crosses Charter Oak. The original start date for this project should have been July 1, 2015 but ODOT notified the contractor late after contract award so the start date was delayed until August 3, 2015. After driving this road for the last few days with no activity I inquired with ODOT and was just informed about this latest delay, they were not able to provide a timeframe for resolution.
It has been a readily accepted fact, by those outside of government, that any government bureaucracy adds special layers of inefficiencies. But it was not until I started looking at the cost of road and bridge construction that this previously accepted fact became all too real and measureable as an order of magnitude money pit. When a state agency interjects its regulatory compliance and oversite processes into a county road or bridge construction project the cost of that project increases by approximately an order of magnitude, or X10. The County Improvements for Roads & Bridges (CIRB) funding carries such a taxing requirement on our counties.
For example, our county can construct a small bridge that meets all state and federal construction guidelines for about 70 thousand dollars, or less, but we can only use county appropriated funds for the project. That same bridge would cost 700 thousand dollars, or more, if the county uses any CIRB, State, or Federal funding. There are several reasons for this order of magnitude inefficiency which I will expand on later. But for now, just think about how much more our county could do to improve and maintain our roads and bridges with an additional 4 to 5 million dollars a year. But as things are done today, using CIRB funding dollars forces us to use the state’s inefficient bureaucratic process which effectively turns 4 million in funding into 400 thousand dollars of completed projects.
This next week, after Waterloo is re-opened, our road crews will begin reconstruction of Charter Oak between Santa Fe and Western. It is our intention to build up, compact, and construct a new stone and aggregate road base. This type of reconstruction will re-crown the roadway with proper drainage and fix the wash boarding and large potholes once resurfaced.
Until next week, be safe out there on our county roads and bridges.
Marven Goodman
Commissioner
Logan County, District 1
Work: 405 282-3581
Cell: 405 679-0350
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