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County engineers tell committee county-paved roads are in crisis, estimate $1 billion to fix statewide needs
Summary
WACERS and the University of Wyoming's T2 center told the committee that county-maintained paved roads (about 2,303 centerline miles statewide) show high rates of cracking and roughness; UW estimated roughly $1 billion would be needed to bring these miles to standard and warned deferred maintenance would add about $94 million per year in future cost.
County engineers and the University of Wyoming Technology Transfer Center told the Joint Transportation Committee that county-paved-road networks statewide are aging and underfunded, and presented a first-ever county-level condition and cost analysis.
Park County engineer Brian Edwards and Sweetwater County public works director Gene Legerski explained that counties maintain about 15,100 centerline miles of roads in total and approximately 2,303 miles of paved county roads. Dr. Khaled Ksabati (UW T2) summarized an inventory-based analysis showing most county paved segments score below WYDOT's pavement-quality thresholds; he said 35% of segments showed significant cracking and approximately 75% scored poorly on roughness metrics in the sample.
Using county-reported unit costs and an empirical decision-tree of treatments (preserve, seal, overlay, reconstruct), UW estimated approximately $1.0 billion would be required to address all county paved-road needs statewide. The analysts also modeled a deferred-maintenance scenario and estimated an additional $94 million in annual future cost growth if counties let problems progress rather than invest in lower-cost preservation early.
WACERS urged the Legislature to consider long-term, callable funding and suggested a starting concept of $500 million over five years (a request from stakeholders, not a committee proposal) to create steady capital that counties could plan against. County speakers warned local road agencies have little capacity for sudden, large funding influxes and stressed any new program should allow multi-year phasing so local contractors and engineers can scale up without overwhelming the market.
Committee members acknowledged the county data and several said they wanted working-group modeling that integrates county needs with state STIP priorities before crafting a legislative funding vehicle.
