County Road Resurfacing Back On Track

The drop in gasoline prices is not only padding people's pocketbooks but also will pay off in a smoother ride on Highlands County roads.

Coupled with the lower production costs of the county's new asphalt plant, the decrease in oil prices will put more new asphalt down on county roadways.

"The price of asphalt is coming down, which means our resurfacing dollars are going to go farther and we're going to try to take advantage of the pricing," county Administrator Mike Wright said.

The county cancelled its annual road resurfacing program for the 2007-08 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, but revived it in early October when the county's new asphalt plant went into operation at the landfill.

At the start, production costs were just under $98 per ton, said Ken Wheeler, who oversees the plant's operation as county director of solid waste.

"The cost now is just shy of $82 (per ton), because the price of asphalt cement is down and the price of fuel oil is down," he said.

Further cost reductions will come within the next several months, Wheeler said, when the county starts using methane gas from the landfill to fuel the plant and using recycled glass for the asphalt mix.

For the new fiscal year, the county had scheduled resurfacing 60 road segments totaling 21.7 miles, and reconstruction of six road segments totaling 2.5 miles.

"I'm fairly certain that we will be able to add some roads to the list," said Kyle Green, interim superintendent of the Road and Bridge department. "Keep in mind that what we are working on now is last year's list, so we're going to get caught up with those and try to add some additional roads."

This past week, the county commissioners approved a contract with Better Roads for resurfacing with their asphalt and with KDL to lay down county produced asphalt, if needed.

Wright said the back-up contracts are in place because "our limiting factor is all the other demands we have on road maintenance, and we can't always pull them off to do the larger jobs."

The county's $3.2 million asphalt plant, with half the cost covered by a $1.65 state alternative energy grant, will be producing at an even lower cost within the next several months, Wheeler said.

Methane gas generated by decomposing refuse at the landfill, which is now flared off, will be used to supply 90 percent of the fuel for the plant, Wheeler said.

"Right now, our fuel oil costs are just a little over $2 (per ton of asphalt produced)," he said. "When the methane goes in, it will cost us 40 cents a ton. That's another $3.60 decrease, so it will drop us down to about $78 per ton."

By March 1, Wheeler said, the county will begin using recycled glass as a substitute for the coarse sand, called screenings, used in asphalt production. Glass recycling will be launched again in Highlands County this winter.

Local glass recycling won't cover the full need for asphalt production, Wheeler said, but he expects that other counties will pay Highlands County to accept their glass, paying less than they would to have it buried in a landfill.

A contract is ready to be awarded to a contractor to crush glass for asphalt production at $5 per ton, Wheeler said. While the benefit of taking glass from other counties isn't pinned down yet, Wheeler predicted that the savings for asphalt production will be substantial.

"The glass will offset materials that are currently costing us $44 per ton," he said.

While most of the resurfacing areas are under a half mile, the longer projects include: Thunderbird Road, 1.5 miles from Grand Prix Drive to Cougar Boulevard; Powerline Road, 2 miles from Arbuckle Creek Road to State Road 17; Avon Boulevard, 1.4 miles from LK Lillian Drive to Russ Road; and Lake June Boulevard, 1.5 miles from Henscratch Road to Western Boulevard.

Five road segments in the Avon Park area are scheduled for reconstruction, on South Corvette Avenue, Renault Avenue, Shamrock Street, Talbot Street and Sunbeam Street, plus Tearose Street in the Sebring area.