Gravel Roads in Washington County:

“An analysis of the condition, engineering solutions, and policy

options for sustaining the gravel road system.”

Section I: Problem Analysis

Prepared for
Washington County Board of Supervisors

Prepared by
David Patterson, Washington County Engineer
Jake Hotchkiss, Lyle Moen, Jeremy McLaughlin

Prepared
September 2008
Problem Statement
High costs and flat revenues, increased vehicle weights, and increases in rural traffic volumes
have created conditions on the gravel road system in Washington County that are quickly
becoming unacceptable to residents. While any one of these changes: financial, increased
weight, or traffic issues could probably be handled by the system under its current allocation of
resources, the combination of all three has tipped the system into a downward spiral that will
become irreparable if changes are not made. Under its current allotment of resources, the gravel
road system has reached a point where damage is being done faster than can be repaired.

Funding Shortfall
Dramatically increasing costs associated with maintaining the gravel road system have placed
Secondary Roads Department in a very difficult financial situation. Cost increases have
outpaced all revenue sources for many consecutive years.

The most typical example of this funding shortfall is seen in the relation between the cost of
gravel and the local property tax returned to the Secondary Roads Department. Figure 1 shows
money raised through local property tax as compared to money spent on gravel over the past 10
years. As the cost and need for gravel has increased, a substantially larger percent of local
revenue is being spent on gravel. More gravel is being hauled today than ever in the past. At the
same time, it is more expensive than ever. Over the past 10 years, the percent of property tax
spent on gravel has increased from 45% to nearly 75%.

4
 Gravel Cost vs. Property Tax Revenue

$1,800,000

$1,600,000

$1,400,000

$1,200,000

$1,000,000 Gravel Cost

Prop Tax to Sec Roads
Gravel Cost Trend
$800,000 Prop Tax to Sec Roads

Gravel costs have increased

139% over the past 10 years
$600,000
(13.9% per year)

Property tax revenue has

$400,000 increased 23% (2.3% per
year)

$200,000

$0
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Year

Figure 1: Gravel Cost vs. Property Tax Revenue

5
Rising Costs
Spurred on by substantial increases in the price of gasoline and diesel, the cost of every essential
element of maintenance and construction has seen large increases in price. Fuel itself has
increased more than 170% in the past 5 years requiring an additional $200,000 per year just to
keep our equipment running. Increased fuel prices have driven up the price of steel, concrete and
construction materials in general. Equipment prices have increased 30% over the past five years
meaning a new motor grader will cost $35,000 more today than in 2003. The price of salt has
risen from $27/ton just three years ago to more than $70/ton today meaning it will cost an extra
$50,000 to purchase salt for this winter.

In total, it will cost an additional $500,000 to perform this years normal Secondary Road
maintenance and repair operations than just 5 years ago.

Flat Revenues
The Secondary Roads Department is funded by a combination of revenue sources that include
local, state, and federal funds. Over the past decade, revenues that are returned to the Secondary
Roads department from all sources have been nearly flat and have not come close to keeping
pace with the increases in expenses. Figure 2 shows what percentage of the Secondary Roads
budget comes from the different sources. Note that this graph does not include funds restricted
for construction projects.

Maintenance Income Sources

Bridge Funds
4%
Federal Gas Tax
5%

Property Tax
35%

Road Use (Gas Tax)

56%

Figure 2: Maintenance Income Sources

6
Local Property Taxes
Washington County has levied the maximum normal levy for the Secondary Roads Department
that is allowed by state law for more than 30 years. Since the levy is stagnant, increases in this
funding source only come from increases in the tax base. Consequently, the tax revenue for
2008 is essentially the same as it was in 2003, the same period where the dramatic cost increases
were seen.

There have been numerous new houses in rural Washington County; however those houses do
not contribute substantially to the Secondary Roads budget. A new $200,000 house will generate
about $264 for Secondary Roads Department. Figure 3 shows a detailed tax breakdown for a
typical rural house. $264 is not even enough money to pay for two loads of gravel, let alone
provide blading maintenance, snow removal, repair culverts, or perform any new construction.
While growth is generally very good for rural counties, it is important to recognize that new
houses do not pay their own way when it comes to gravel road maintenance. As a result, the
uncontrolled rural housing growth is adding to the deterioration to the county road system.

Typical Rural House Value $200,000

Property Tax Rollback 45%
Average Tax Credit $2,235
Taxable Value $87,765

Total Rural Levy (per $1000) $28.50

Rural Taxes Paid $2,501

Secondary Roads Levy (per $1000) 3.00375

Taxes Returned to Secondary Roads $264
Figure 3: Rural Residential Tax Example

Unfortunately, confinement facilities cause even more severe damage. A new confinement
facility that cost $500,000 to construct will produce just $197 for the Secondary Roads
Department. This is not enough money to haul a single load of gravel. Figure 4 shows this
calculation in detail as provided by the Office of the County Assessor.

Typical 50' x 384' building $500,000

Depreciation 3%
$485,000
Ag Factor 80%
$97,000
Pit Exception -$31,400
Taxable Valuation $65,600

Total Rural Levy (per $1000) $28.50

Rural Taxes Paid $1,870

Secondary Roads Levy (per $1000) 3.00375

Taxes to Secondary Roads $197
Figure 4: Confinement Building Tax Example

7
In 2008 the Washington County Board of Supervisors raised an additional $300,000 in the form
of a special levy for the gravel roads. While this one time increase was a needed band aide to
help the county recover from the abnormal winter weather conditions, it does not address the
fundamental issue of lagging revenue.

State Gas Tax

The state gas tax was last increased in 1989 and remains at 19 cents/gallon for ethanol blended
gasoline. Because the tax is a set amount per gallon and not a percentage, increases in funding
from gas tax revenues only happen when consumers use more fuel. When fuel prices began to
rise three years ago, consumers began to change their purchasing and driving behaviors.
Consumers are purchasing more fuel efficient vehicles and driving less. As a result, this funding
source has been nearly flat for several years and is projected to decrease if the current driving
trends continue.

Road Use Taxes

Road Use Tax funds come substantially from vehicle registration fees, vehicle sales tax,
overweight permits, driving penalties, and drivers license registrations. Increases in this funding
source have been lagging behind maintenance and construction cost increases for more than a
decade. As a result the Iowa Legislature recently passed the TIME-21 legislation to increase
revenue. Unfortunately, the increase is phased in over several years and gives proportionally less
money to Counties in Iowa than previous bills. Whereas Counties used to receive 24.5% of the
total Road Use Tax funds, now they will only receive 20% of new revenues. This highlights the
shifting focus in Iowa’s transportation policy towards more urbanized areas.

Figure 5 shows how the TIME-21 legislation is projected to impact Washington County. The
legislation is projected to provide less than $35,000 in additional funds for 2009. When the
legislation is fully funded in 2012, it will produce $225,000 in additional funding. While this
may seem like a significant increase, it will not restore the buying power that has been eroded
over the past years.

FY 2008 FY 2009 FY 2010 FY 2011 FY 2012

Secondary Increase Increase Increase Increase
Road Fund from TIME-21 from TIME-21 from TIME-21 from TIME-21
Washington
$2,430,174 $34,772 $108,794 $171,163 $226,439
County
Figure 5: RUTF Projected Growth

8
Federal Transportation Taxes
The current Federal Transportation Bill was passed 2 years ago. As a whole, the nationwide bill
represented a respectable increase in funding for transportation. However, because of earmarks,
new programs, and a shifting focus towards more populous states, the money received by our
region (and Washington County specifically) is actually less than in the previous bill.

The Federal Transportation Bill is largely funded by the federal gas tax. With the passage of this
bill, Iowa became a “donor state” for the first time. That means more money leaves Iowa
through the Federal Gas Tax than is returned through the bill. This further highlights the shifting
focus of nationwide transportation policy towards urbanized areas.

Operational Cutbacks
Over the past five years, the Secondary Roads Department has made cutbacks in construction,
equipment, and needed roadway repairs in order to maintain a balanced budget. It has striven to
save money through innovation, economization, and pursuit of additional funding through grants.
The department has implemented the use of low-water crossings to replace bridges, internalized
formerly outsourced maintenance, and even used railroad flat cars to replace bridges.

The Secondary Roads Department is currently staffed based on its snow removal operations. It
operates with one maintenance person for each piece of snow removal equipment. Maintenance
territories and snow removal routes are engineered to have all paved roads cleared the first day
and all gravel roads cleared by the second day after a snow event. Any reductions in the current
labor force would mean an immediate reduction in our level of service for snow removal and
gravel road maintenance.

Equipment and maintenance sheds are also sized based on our staff and territory locations.
Combining buildings or reducing equipment or staffing levels will not provide any significant
cost savings.

Increasing Traffic Loads

The vehicle size of the traffic on the gravel roads in Washington County is greater than ever
before. About 20 years ago, farms began to get much larger and more industrialized. To
accommodate this change, farming vehicles and equipment have grown in size and weight.
Tractors, combines, wagons, and equipment are larger and heavier than ever before. As an
example, a loaded manure wagon will commonly carry as much as 9,000 gallons and weigh in
excess of 90,000 pounds.

Confinement facilities exemplify this change. According to the Office of the County Assessor,
160 new confinement facilities have been constructed in just the past 5 years. In total, there are
now 942 confinement buildings in Washington County. The vast majority of these are located
on gravel roads. Figure 6 shows 349 of the confinement operation locations in Washington
County. Note that each of these operations may contain more than one confinement building.
Each confinement will generate dozens of semi truck trips to deliver feed stock and pickup
livestock on the rural road system. Additionally, during the fall many of these facilities will
transport their manure using oversized tank wagons adding numerous additional heavy loads to
the road system.

9
Figure 6: Washington County Confinement Locations

10
The damage done by loaded semi trucks is exponentially greater than that of a typical passenger
vehicle or even farm tractor. The gravel road system was not designed or constructed to be able
to consistently carry these heavier loads. As a result, the Secondary Roads Department has
repeatedly seen gravel roads that were in good shape for many years become damaged beyond
normal repair in a matter of weeks after a new confinement opens on a road. This spring, roads
with new confinements that had held up in the past became impassable as a result of the heavier
loads. Roads that had been recently rocked were turned to mud. The Secondary Roads
Department has dozens of examples of roads that were excessively damaged this past spring as a
result of the increased frequency of heavy truck loads. By contrast, there are several segments of
roads without confinements that held their shape and condition even through the series of recent
weather events.

More Rural Traffic than Ever

Housing in Washington County has been on a steady increase. According to the office of the
County Assessor, there have been 327 new houses in rural Washington County over just the past
5 years. This does not include the 206 new homes within the cities in the County. According to
Iowa State research, each new rural house produces an average of 8 vehicle trips per day. New
housing alone is producing thousands of extra vehicle trips per day. The majority of these trips
begin on a gravel road. Figure 7 shows the location of all new rural houses in Washington
County for the past 5 years. An important element to consider about new rural residents is that
many bring an expectation for levels of service based on what they experienced in the city.

A review of traffic patterns over the past 20 years shows that there have been significant
increases in traffic on the rural roads in Washington County. Figure 8 highlights an area south of
Riverside which typifies this increase and shows what happens to traffic counts as rural housing
increases. It is worth emphasizing that the property taxes generated by these new houses (see
Figure 3, page 7) do not pay for the additional maintenance and service requirements they
generate.

The widespread increase in traffic on rural gravel roads has brought traffic volumes on many
roads to the point where the County should be considering hard surfacing them. Unfortunately,
there is insufficient funding to maintain the gravel on them, let alone begin to consider regrading
or paving them.

11
Figure 7: New Rural Houses (2003 – 2007)

12
1986 Traffic Counts 2006 Traffic Counts

Figure 8: Rural Traffic Comparison South of Riverside (1986 – 2006)

13