Unwilling to let nature have its way with the road in front his home, Joel Levin took a day off work in mid-December to do some patch work on the small, city-owned arterial. The cracks and erosion triggered by years of rain and weather have taken their toll on Gertie Johnson Road.

Neighbors have acted as the eyes and ears for the city to try and avoid a repeat of the 2007 mud slide that blocked the road, and though their combined efforts has staved off another crisis, the road’s crumbling foundation has not been addressed.

“It starts to beg the question,” Levin said. “When does a lack of maintenance become a public safety concern?”

Much of the 140 miles of the island’s aging road network needs regular maintenance and others have deteriorated to the degree that they pose an imminent danger or require total reconstruction. Confronted with a new financial reality and a hefty backlog of projects, the city is headed up a steep path.

“It’s what I like to call pothole politics,” said City Council member Bill Knobloch. “We are waiting for better times, fixing the potholes, trying to get by. But it all comes down to money, and we don’t have it.”

After a debilitating budget reality in 2010 the city is is aware of what scarce funds are available, and the great need for work to be done. The council has said it is reluctant to go to the voter’s for a bond to pay for more road construction costs, but as of yet, it hasn’t determined what the plan is going forward, or, how it will be paid for. Those decisions will be made in 2011.

City staff was unable to provide answers to specific questions related to salaries, project backlog and budget until later this year.

History of ailing roads

In 1995 the Pavement Management System (PMS) concluded a study indicating that the surface of many of the roads were at or near failure. Much of today’s problems stem from poor initial construction, according to the study.

It indicated that the city would need to spend $600,000 in annual preservation maintenance and repaving over the next 10 to 12 years to maintain roads at the current level. Annual preservation maintenance includes work like sealing cracks, chip seal and overlay work and is distinct from daily operational maintenance like street sweeping and pothole repair. Knobloch estimated each road should see preservation maintenance once every three years. That level of attention has been unattainable for the city.

The city realized in 1998 that the $600,000 wouldn’t be enough considering road conditions and increased the amount to about $1 million. Unsurprisingly, that large sum was often not available or used for other purposes.

In recent years, even less funding was made available. In 2003 through 2008, the city dedicated $1.5 million – or an average of about $250,000 per year – for the annual maintenance program. In 2009 and 2010, the annual roads program received no money. This year the maintenance program was allocated $400,000. The city hasn’t decided how to use that money.

“Paving is a triage exercise,” said Public Works Director Lance Newkirk. “We need to focus our scarce resources on the roads that are still saveable so we can save money over the long term.”

The city is in the midst of an island-wide road inventory to measure and rate the condition of each road in the network. After the raw data is entered into a database, it will provide a score on the overall condition of island roads in 2011. That score will be used to determine a policy and future goal for overall island condition and funding.

Struggle to find funds

Squeezing money for major capital projects and construction is a challenge when the city struggles to pay for routine work.

“We’ve been confronted by a new norm in terms of revenue available to the city,” said Knobloch. “If we can’t pay for the core services of government responsibility, like public safety and roads, then we have a serious problem.”

The roadwork backlog is rumored to be about 10 years overdue. Major construction projects, including Rockaway Beach Drive and Wing Point Way, have lingered on the city’s to-do list for more than a decade.

The northern stretch of Rockaway Beach presents an imminent threat to neighbors, whose homes are perched above a road that sits on a bluff that has eroded some 15 feet during the last six years.

The city has made some temporary fixes, but it doesn’t have the funds needed to start and finish a project that would make the road safe. Meanwhile, the road’s underpinning continues to slip away during the winter months.

Total construction costs to repair Wing Point Way carry a price tag of at least $1.5 million, according to an estimate made in July 2010 by Community Development Administrator Chris Wierzbicki. And that’s not the only project in the 2011 through 2016 Capital Facilities Plan (CFP) with a 1A (imperative project) rating worth millions in construction costs.

City Hall watchdog Daniel Smith said the city’s Public Works Department has historically been able to accomplish only a fraction of the projects listed in the CFP, and projects that do come to fruition are often late or over budget.

The Winslow Way reconstruction project, for instance, has already cost millions of dollars in city and grant money, yet construction hasn’t even officially broken ground.

And what about improvements to widen shoulders and enhance island-wide access for bikes and pedestrians? Those projects are still on the wish list. The city created a “core 40” program, which targeted 40 roads for upgrades around the island for non-motorized improvements.

Some of the work has been completed at places such as Blakely Elementary School and currently in progress along North Madison Avenue funded through a federal grant.

But much of the remaining “core” roadways, linger on the CFP, as funding is limited or non-existent and grants are competitive.

Not uncommon

Cities across the state are also grappling with aging transportation infrastructure and lagging budgets and tax revenue.

“What’s happening here isn’t unique to Bainbridge,” said Newkirk. “It’s statewide and nationwide, as some of the dedicated revenues for streets like the gas tax dry up since people in Washington aren’t driving as much or have fuel efficient vehicles. So there just isn’t as much revenue coming in.”

The street fund is financed through the gas tax, and transfers from the general fund. City staff addressed council in 2010 about finding alternative revenue streams, like creating a street maintenance utility or a transportation benefit district. Those options will be addressed again this year.

Meanwhile, islanders like Ken Sethney say they will continue to zig-zag across the road as they drive home at night, trying to avoid the bumps and holes.

“It would make a lot more sense if we could just solve problems now, so we aren’t just waiting for landslides or other disasters to really cause a tragedy,” said Sethney.