On Tuesday, Sept. 6, the Greater Maple Valley Unincorporated Area Council held its regular monthly meeting. Jay Osborne, Manager in the Road Services Division (RSD) of the King County.

Department of Transportation, discussed the updated Strategic Plan for Road Services based on current and projected budget constraints.

Part of that plan is a new tiered level of service that would be implemented beginning in 2012, pending King County Council approval. The plan shows revenues are insufficient to sustain the preservation and maintenance of the entire county road system. Consequently, RSD has prioritized which roadways will be serviced to keep them in working order, while allowing other roadways to deteriorate due to lack of maintenance and preservation.

RSD is significantly constrained by a structural funding problem due to losses of major sources of funding in recent years: elimination of the local option vehicle license fee, voter-approved initiative limiting property tax growth to 1 percent annually (thus, not necessarily keeping pace with inflation), exhaustion of levy capacity, steady decline in gas-tax revenues, and the decrease in federal and state grant funding available.

In the meantime, costs for labor, materials, equipment and for meeting standards and regulatory requirements have generally increased. Sixty-five percent of the RSD revenues are from property taxes.

Only 12 percent comes from the gas tax. Property values have gone down reducing property tax receipts and people are driving less, reducing gas tax receipts. As a result, RSD is looking at about 18% layoffs by the end of this year.

Mr. Osborne focussed on meeting unincorporated area road needs under this constrained budget environment. The targeted approach focuses on five ranked priorities: regulatory compliance, core safety, preservation and maintenance, mobility, and capacity (only for urban connector arterioles to support urban growth).

It is estimated $240 million is needed annually for optimal management of the unincorporated area roads system. This includes the costs of completing the backlog of road projects, of meeting new transportation system needs, and of adopting an approach to minimize lifetime costs of existing roads, bridges, etc.

However, under the current funding structure, only $102 million is estimated to be available annually beginning in 2015, insufficient to fund infrastructure maintenance and preservation to sustain the current condition of the system.

There would be difficult choices to make since the system would eventually deteriorate to failure conditions. Some bridges and roads would eventually need to be load-limited to prevent damage. Speed reductions on some roadways, more lane closures for emergency repairs, and increased congestion would eventually occur. Some complete closures of roads and bridges might be necessary. Maintenance would be primarily reactive in nature, and the associated needs and costs would accelerate as infrastructure condition deteriorates. Emergency and storm response capability would be limited due to lack of resources. Mr. Osborne termed this scenario as “managing risk in a declining system.”

As a result, a tiered level of service has been established which consists of: tier 1 – the spine of

the county road system (e.g., Issaquah-Hobart Rd.), totals 105 miles (7 percent); tier 2 – connectors and backup for tier 1 roads (e.g., Cedar Grove Rd.), totals 166 miles (11 percent); tier 3 – highly used local roads (e.g., Sweeney Road Southeast), totals 193 miles (12 percent); tier 4 – residential dead end roads, totals 510 miles (32 percent) and tier 5 – local roads that have alternate access, totals 590 miles (38 percent). All five tiers will be addressed when it comes to regulatory compliance and safety, but only the highest tiers for preservation and maintenance.

In the greater Maple Valley area about 60 percent of the unincorporated roads are tier 4 and 5.

The King County County Council will be discussing and voting on the tiered system later this month and it will be reflected in the 2012 budget. More information can be found at: www.kingcounty.gov/roads.