Public Works-HURF
Dan Cherry
1100 Commerce Drive, Prescott, AZ 86305
928-771-3183
Budget Memorandum
Overview:
The HURF budget funds the operation and maintenance of roads under the County’s jurisdiction and that are on an adopted maintained roads list. Yavapai County receives revenue for this purpose from an existing fuel tax and vehicle license tax, and the amount is based, in part, on the total amount of County maintained roadways, both paved and un-paved.
Our goal for the local road program is to provide safe and effective transportation for the citizens of Yavapai County by providing operation, maintenance, planning, design, and construction of the County’s transportation system in a cost-effective manner. Our main challenge is to provide these services within the limits of existing revenues.
Paved Roadway System:
As discussed during the annual Board retreat in January 2022, the Public Works Department continues to utilize its comprehensive pavement management software and data to more accurately predict allocation of assets for regular and preventive maintenance for our paved roadway system. This system ensures that annual maintenance activities are now predicted by our pavement management system and checked for accuracy by the staff within the Roads and Engineering Divisions of Public Works. One of the major advantages to this system is that the entire paved roadway system has been scientifically evaluated under the same standards and criteria, and road maintenance will be programed on a system wide basis. Additionally, alternate maintenance scenarios to optimize the program can be compared with a minimal effort, where this was extremely labor intensive in the past. Public Works collects data on its paved roads once every 3 years via an outside contract with a firm that has specialized equipment to assess a multitude of condition factors for each road the County maintains. Different roads with different defects and failures require a range of treatments, and this tool helps Public Works staff be able to more effectively address the County’s needs while optimizing its funding. It has proven to be an excellent tool and the use of technology in our day-to-day operations has helped to position Yavapai County for success into the future.
In conjunction with this program, it should be noted that one of the most cost-effective methods of maintenance is our chip seal program. In general, paved roadways require a chip seal, at a minimum, every six to eight years, which renews the friction course at the surface of the roadway, and seals up small cracks that inevitably form in the pavement due to environmental and vehicular stresses put on the roadway. The Public Works Department continues to direct a sizeable portion of its funding towards chip seals and other cost-effective preventative maintenance projects. Taking into consideration existing and projected revenues, funding for other types of projects will be monitored closely in the future, and the County’s unpaved roadway paving program is being scrutinized internally from a value standpoint. Proposed HURF three-year project lists are attached to the budget proposal, and are broken into several categories of work, including pavement overlays and reconstructions. This three-year plan for HURF projects was also presented in a preliminary form during the Board’s 2022 annual retreat.
Unpaved Roadway System:
With the support and leadership by the Board at prior annual retreats, Public Works continues to direct some of its funding into the Dirt-to-Black program, which is used to convert existing County-maintained dirt roads to a hardened surface. While this does pull funding away from the Department’s maintenance goals to improve the remaining service life of its existing paved roads, the program is popular and allows the Department to strategically reduce grading in certain areas and improve winter weather road conditions on some maintained dirt roads. While the funding falls far short of what would be required to make dramatic headway on turning County-maintained dirt roads to blacktop, this will certainly remain a positive for the residents on roads identified for upgrade. The three-year plan for this program is included in the spreadsheets attached to this proposal.
I would like to mention that during the 2022 annual Board of Supervisors retreat, some discussion occurred about whether additional funding may be directed into the Dirt-to-Black program, specifically from a portion of the County’s existing half-cent sales tax. We annually budget approximately $300K to $400K towards this paving program at this time. Discussion focused on thoughts about taking 10% from the half-cent revenue source and direct it into the HURF budget, which could be used to bolster the dirt-to-black program and allow for an increase to the number of projects that can be completed annually. A 10% slice of the half-cent sales tax could be in the range of $2M, which would go a long way towards increasing the number of County-maintained roads that can be paved annually. This would likely put somewhat of a strain on current Public Works staffing levels from engineering design to inspection during construction, and we anticipate we would need to bid these projects out to be completed by contractors rather than via in-house crews, as many are completed under the current funding amounts, but we are happy to continue discussion of this if the Board so wishes. Public Works has put some thought into a list of roads that could be included in an expanded program, but I would like to remind the Board that we typically need to acquire right-of-way before a dirt road may receive a substantial investment of capital funds. This process of right-of-way acquisition can often be a lengthy and contentious one, and projects have often been shelved due to lack of support from residents.
In the past several years, with occasional adjustments to our dirt road maintenance procedures and the addition of a supervisor to oversee the maintenance and scheduling of unpaved roads, Public Works has been able to improve its maintenance schedule rotation times countywide. Feedback received from the public, with regards to the changes, has been good and we look to continue this trend and keep the unpaved roads under County responsibility in as best condition as possible, given funding capacity and staffing levels.
General:
The joint brush removal opportunities between Public Works and the Adult Probation Work program and the Inmate Work program for brush removal within the right of way have continued to be a cost-effective means for addressing aesthetics, safety, and fire hazard concerns along many roads within the County. The COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected the participation in this program during the past two fiscal years, but Public Works continues to anticipate future work under this successful program and the funds to support it are included in the HURF budget proposal for FY 22-23. Roads Division staff have developed a strong and cooperative working relationship with Adult Probation staff and discuss scheduling on a fairly regular basis, particularly during the warmer months.
HURF Program Changes for FY 22-23:
Public Works has had discussions with the Facilities Department concerning some needed improvements at some of our facilities. There are six (6) requests being included as Exhibit 3s by Facilities for Public Works. Some of these requests relate specifically to necessary safety improvements, and several similar requests were granted and approved during the last budget process as well. Public Works has been faced with some shortfalls when it comes to meeting the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), specifically relating to the fuel island areas in both our Prescott and Verde yards. We are jointly requesting the construction of canopies over the fuels islands at these locations to comply with OSHA regulations and standards. As the Verde Valley diesel fuel island area is smaller, Facilities developed an estimate of $100,000.00 for this one-time capital improvement cost. The Prescott fuel island, which includes both diesel and unleaded fuel pumps, located at the back of the Public Works/Fleet facility on Commerce Drive, is larger and thus an estimate was developed in the amount of $200,000.00 for this one-time cost.
At the Verde Valley Public Works facility, there is a large, existing open bay that is used by Heavy Fleet for work on vehicles and occasional storage for items like tires, and we are proposing a project to enclose this bay to improve use and keep equipment and staff out of the weather when working. Furthermore, we have had a continual battle with birds and small mammals roosting/nesting in this bay. Enclosure would increase the effectiveness of this bay and provide a more comfortable and safer environment for work to occur. Facilities has developed an estimate for enclosure of this bay at $125,000.00, which is a one-time cost.
Staying with the Verde Valley location, the area between the Public Works office and the Heavy/Light Fleet building is currently unpaved. This is a generator of dust and mud which is tracked into the fleet bays and buildings, which has health and safety implications, as well as general tidiness and keeping storm runoff from the site cleaner. We are proposing, via an Exhibit 3 for consideration, to pave this dirt parking area between the buildings and have developed an estimated one-time cost of $200,000.00 for this work.
For one last capital improvement request for the Verde Public Works facility, we are requesting via Exhibit 3 to convert the existing gate that is the main entrance into the yard from a manual gate to an electric gate that is operated via an employee badge swipe. This will improve security for the yard during off hours, controlling who has access, as well as modernize the access to a standard that we use at the existing Prescott Public Works facility. The one-time cost estimate provided by Facilities for this improvement is $22,000.00 which includes materials and labor for installation.
At our Prescott Public Works facility, we are requesting via an Exhibit 3 to add some parking lot lighting to an area where we currently store and charge our fleet of Electronic Message Board signs. These signs are regularly deployed at a moment’s notice in response to emergencies, accidents, or weather events, and the dark parking/storage area is not conducive to effective and efficient coupling and parking of this equipment. We are requesting approval of an Exhibit 3 which will allow for the expansion of our parking lot lighting to this area of the facility and a one-time cost estimate has been developed in the amount of $17,680.00.
A final HURF-funded Exhibit 3 is for a new piece of equipment to be stationed in the Verde Valley. Two years ago, Public Works requested and was granted authorization to purchase a Caterpillar 299D3XE Compact Track Loader (aka “skid steer”) that has a variety of attachments including mower, brush mulcher, cold planer/grinder for pavement, and a posthole auger for sign installation. This piece of equipment has proven to be one of our most utilized and reserved tools in maintaining Yavapai County right-of-way, and we are seeking authorization to add a second unit with the same capabilities that can be stationed primarily out of the Verde office (the original one is currently stationed in Prescott). Cost in 2020 was approximately $175,500, and we have received a quote for a second unit at $220,000.00. We are requesting approval of this new piece of equipment via an Exhibit 3 as it is not replacing existing machinery. This will also give the County one more mower to utilize during the pre-fire season and post-monsoon weed growth period that often leads to an increase in calls from residents of Yavapai County.