BENTONVILLE -- Benton County plans to pave 49 miles of road this year and make a concerted effort to improve unpaved roads, officials said.
"My budget has X amount of dollars for asphalt," said Jay Frasier, the county's public services administrator who oversees the Road Department. "Once that's done, I'm not going to ask for more money for asphalt. We're going to switch over and work on some of these dirt roads that need maintenance."
Frasier said the county's 2018 road plan includes eight projects from the 2017 plan. He said the April flooding set the county back, but those unfinished projects should be first on the list for this year. The Road Department's plan focuses on maintaining existing roads, both paved and unpaved.
Officials developed the plan using information gathered in a video survey of the county's paved roads done early in 2017. The survey showed most of the 800 miles of paved roads are in fair to excellent condition, according to a report made to the Quorum Court. The county also has about 1,100 miles of unpaved roads.
Barry Moehring, county judge of Benton County, wanted the survey to provide more of a "data-driven" road plan.
"The main key to how we're making our decisions now is we don't have to physically drive the roads ourselves," he said. "We can sit here 'in-house' and drive these roads on the server."
The county hired GreenbergFarrow to have paved roads surveyed and listed in one of six categories ranging from excellent, or roads requiring no work, to reconstruct, meaning roads requiring full-depth reconstruction of the pavement.
According to its report, most of the county's roads -- 83 percent-- are in good to fair condition, the second and third-highest categories. The summary showed 10.3 percent of the county's paved roads are in critical condition -- the fourth-highest category.
GreenbergFarrow is headquartered in Atlanta and has a Bentonville office. The work done by the company cost about $65,500.
Moehring said he became interested in a paving assessment program after hearing of it from other elected officials, including Bella Vista Mayor Peter Christie. Christie said his city is basing its road work plans on an assessment done in 2015.
"We know we're making progress because we can see it," Christie said. "Also, the feedback we've gotten from our residents has been very positive."
Metro on 01/01/2018