Montgomery roads need $450M in repairs, officials estimate

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196 days ago: One-third of roads in Montgomery in poor condition, study reveals

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Montgomery County’s rural and residential roads need about $450 million worth of repairs to bring them into good condition, public works officials say, but the county is only budgeting about $8 million a year for road maintenance and refurbishing.

The cost estimates come on the heels of a public works study released this spring that said one-third of the county’s rural and residential roads are in poor or very poor condition. Only 10 percent of the 248 lane miles surveyed were in good condition, and only 2 percent were in very good condition.

“That’s not even the stuff we promised to construct, that’s just keeping on top of what we have,” Councilwoman Nancy Floreen, who heads the council’s transportation and infrastructure committee, said.

Councilman Marc Elrich, who was briefed by the county’s public works and transportation leaders on the vast road-rehabilitation needs, said the discrepancy between money budgeted and repair estimates is “very disturbing.”

“If you look at the amount of money the county has spent over the years on maintenance, this isn’t something that happened yesterday, it has been building for a long, long time,” Elrich said. Tom Pogue, community relations manager for the department of public works and transportation, said the county is changing its approach and its methods for road repair work.

Previously, Pogue said, repair crews and vocal residents identified problem areas and the county would order repairs.

The county is also largely abandoning a “chip and seal” approach in which potholes are filled, and gravel is poured on top of repairs and sealed with a thin layer of asphalt. Residents complained the process left repaired roads dusty and full of loose gravel and engineers noticed the repairs didn’t last very long.

Now the county will fix most roads with a process that involves dumping a thicker layer of asphalt over the entire road after repairs are made — it’s five times as costly, but also more permanent.

kmiller@dcexaminer.comkath

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» 59 days ago: Montgomery roads need $450M in repairs, officials estimate «

196 days ago: One-third of roads in Montgomery in poor condition, study reveals