Utah County staff present CIP updates, flag road projects and funding gaps

Utah County public-works and budget staff briefed commissioners in a work session on updates to the county's Capital Improvement Program, outlining specific road projects, estimated costs and a timeline for a more complete public-facing plan.

Richard Nelson, public works director and member of the Capital Projects Committee, said the main change in this week's package was a proposed next-year roads list funded from the county's fourth-quarter-cent allocation. He identified several projects and cost estimates, including cold-in-place recycling on South Fork Road in Provo Canyon (~$550,000), a $900,000 package for overlaying and patching on multiple county roads (including portions of Woodland Hills Drive and roads near Hobble Creek and Palmyra), and about $750,000 proposed for chip seals covering roughly 44 miles of roadway.

Nelson said the Salem Parkway project is expected to enter construction next year and will likely require about $1,000,000 in additional funds beyond available Metropolitan Area Government (MAG) money to cover right-of-way costs. He also described a paving proposal on 8000 North in the Eagle Mountain area that would require coordination or an interlocal agreement with Eagle Mountain City for the adjacent portion of the roadway.

Staff flagged maintenance on the Jordan River Trail as a need: Nelson said roughly $300,000 would be needed to mill and repave a section, but trail maintenance is not an allowable use of the fourth-quarter-cent funds being discussed; staff said they would pursue alternative funding sources and review grant opportunities identified by the Jordan River Commission.

On the asset-management side, Nelson said the county's implementation of AssetWorks was delayed during the COVID period because the vendor could not travel to complete on-site setup. He said staff are working remotely with the vendor and expect an on-site visit in the coming months; in the meantime, staff can provide outputs from existing GRAMA/Eucis systems used to justify project selection.

Rudy Livingston, budget manager, said the CIP remains a "living document" and described work to make it more useable for commissioners and the public. The planned public-facing deliverable will show anticipated capital expenditures by year, reserve targets and the operating-budget impacts departments will face (maintenance, fuel, repairs and other ongoing costs associated with new assets). Livingston said staff plan to include pavement-condition-index data and maps so commissioners can compare streets and make multi-year decisions that capture economies of scale.

A commissioner asked whether multi-year or phased projects that exceed a $100,000 threshold in aggregate should be listed in the CIP; Livingston said multi-phase systems or projects that sum to more than $100,000 should be included, while ongoing operating costs such as annual software maintenance generally are not capital items. Livingston cited HR Workday as an example of a high annual operating cost he considered an operating expense rather than capital.

Staff told commissioners they plan to present a more complete draft of the 2021 CIP next week and will continue to refine asset worksheets and collaborate with departments to populate the schedule. No formal vote on the CIP occurred at the work session. The meeting concluded after housekeeping and public-comment checks; an unnamed commissioner moved to adjourn and the moderator seconded; commissioners responded "Aye" and the session ended.

The immediate next step: staff will deliver the fuller CIP draft as planned next week and continue developing public-facing materials (schedules, PCI data and maps) to support commissioners' review and an eventual decision on the 2021 plan.