If the most recent study on road conditions in Battle Ground point to anything, it’s that more funding — and likely more taxes — are the only way to fix areas where roads rank “poor.”
During a work session ahead of its Aug. 7 meeting, the Battle Ground City Council heard from Joel Conder, co-owner of Capitol Asset & Pavement Services (CAPS), about an update on the city’s street pavement ratings.
The city has 87.5 miles of paved streets as measured from the centerline of the road. The vast majority — more than 63 miles — are residential and local streets, while arterial and collector roads make up the rest, based on information from CAPS.
The evaluation of the city follows an industry-standard metric of a “pavement conditions index.”
Citywide rating
Citywide, the average PCI is 72, or just slightly more than the “good” rating threshold, which is the top rating in the index, according to Conder’s presentation.
About 61% of the city’s streets fall in that “good” rating, while about 24% land in a “fair” rating, roughly 13% are rated as “poor” and close to 2% of streets are considered “very poor” by the index.
CAPS works with hundreds of cities and counties along the West Coast, Conder said. Based on what he’s seen in that area, he gave Battle Ground a “C-plus” rating on its streets.
“You’re better than most, but you’re fitting right in the middle, there,” Conder said.
With the growth the city is experiencing, Conder anticipated the city would have “significant needs come due all at once.” Addressing roads in better condition before they deteriorate leads to less expensive repairs, he explained.
Through the pavement management system, if the city spent $22 million on streets over five years it would be able to maintain a PCI in the low-80s on the PCI scale.
Currently, the city is spending about $1.2 million per year, which will keep it about the same in the overall PCI score, though streets would deteriorate. An increase to $2 million would get it in between current levels but not have any deferred maintenance.
Currently, the city has about $8.5 million in deferred maintenance costs. That would increase to $15 million in 2027 under that current limit.
“You’re definitely not spending enough money today, and your deferred maintenance is definitely going up,” Conder said.
The majority of roads in poor and very poor condition are in the downtown core of the city, Conder noted, while looking at a map of PCI values across Battle Ground. Under current spending, more roads in the city would fall into those categories.
Conder said many roads in good condition will stay that way longer as they are newer than the more beleaguered roadways in the older parts of the city. He said, in the next 15 to 20 years, all of those roads will degrade to a lower condition at the same time.
Street improvements in the program range from sealing roads with a number of solutions and chemicals, to “mill-and-fill” projects that entail grinding down part of the pavement and rebuilding it greater.
At the current level of funding, about 13% of streets will be in poor or very poor condition in five years. That drops to 7% with a $2 million annual investment, according to CAPS data. The number of good-condition streets will grow from about 69% in the five-year for the current funding level to roughly 84% if annual funding increases to the $2 million.
“It’s huge, the difference between $1 million and $2 million, for your city,” Conder said.
Funding is needed
Although he had not run specific scenarios, Conder said knocking out all deferred maintenance in a five-year timeframe could lead to significant savings after the heavy-spending period. Compared with the current $1.2 million of spending, it could drop as low as $300,000 annually to maintain.
“If you get up to that 83, 84 PCI, it’s just so cheap to maintain it after that because you’re really doing basically a little bit of crack sealing and a few seal coats each year,” Conder said.
With current revenue streams, it is impossible for the city to fund street projects at a level to take care of all deferred maintenance, city Finance Director Meagan Lowery said.
The city has a number of options to consider that would make up the funding, including a “lid lift” of the existing property tax levy, a new levy specifically for roads, making bonds that would require debt service or a sales tax increase. The city could raise the current 0.1% that goes to transportation up to 0.3%.
All of those decisions, save for the bonding, involve an increase in property or sales taxes. There’s also the option to increase utility taxes.
Councilor Shane Bowman noted the dilemma the city faces in its effort to improve roads.
“There’s no way for us to accomplish this without some type of a tax increase,” Bowman said.
He said some local governments have gone out for a bond for the street overhaul and have been able to maintain it.
Bowman anticipates resident complaints should another tax increase come before voters, including the increase in property taxes annexation into the fire district brought on.
“If we do nothing, or even stay where we’re at, all we’re doing is putting this on some other council,” Bowman said.
Conder said for roads rated very poor, the condition was bad enough that simple fixes were out of the question.
“Your only answer to fix that road is to structurally fix the entire thing,” Conder said.
Another cost-saving measure was having greater oversight over the projects as they are completed, Conder said.
“So many of these contractors these days are doing this work without the eye of the city on them, and it’s gotten to be a real problem,” Conder said.
The council did not vote on any changes.
