By Paige Gurgainers
The Webster Parish Police Jury (WPPJ) will be revisiting and possibly redoing their Webster Parish Priority Road List. This is not a static list and is updated periodically, but according to Engineer Brad Graff, it has been about 8-9 years since they have evaluated all the parish-owned roads.
“It’s not going to be inexpensive to re-rate all the roads. You have to ride them once to get a feel for it, then ride it again and make notes on the condition,” said Graff. “With all the miles of road that we have and to give every one of them the same evaluation, it takes time.”
The parish-wide system includes a list of all the roads in the parish that need repairs or improvements. A third-party company came in and prioritized these roads by a certain criterion. They look at the roads that have the highest traffic volume, serve the highest demand for travel, and provide movement to major business districts, hospitals, schools, etc. They take into consideration the number of residents that live on the road and the current condition of the surface of the road.
As the jury has money, they will begin working from the top of the list and making repairs.
“We need to make our money go as far as we can. To that and save some money and get more work done than we usually do,” said WPPJ Vice President Steve Ramsey.
According to Ramsey, the WPPJ has approximately $500-600K designated for roads per year. To rebase a road with 2” of hot mix, it costs around $200K per mile, which only allows the jury to repair about 2-3 roads on the priority list per year.
“As tight as money is and to be paving a road that is in good shape just because it is on that list, that doesn’t make sense,” said Juror for District 3 Daniel Thomas.
Goodwill Road, which is in Mike Griffith’s district – District 5, and falls around #100 on the priority list, was mentioned.
Griffith said, “If you look at Goodwill Road From 1-20 to 528, it is dangerously bad, but from 528 to Fuller, it is not bad.”
According to Ramsey, Goodwill Road should be number one on the list. He said, “It doesn’t need to be a piece here and a piece there, it needs to be completely redone. We are going to have to do something there. If you ride down it, you will see what I am talking about.”
Graff mentioned a company that may be able to evaluate the roads in a more efficient manner.
“They can ride a road at 40-miles-per-hour. It has equipment in it that senses things and it has sensors outside the vehicle,” said Graff. “It is a lot more accurate. Human error doesn’t come into it or opinion. Even if it is a little more expensive, it would probably be a lot quicker.”
Graff will be working to receive a quote to have the company come in and re-evaluate the parish roads and will present it to the jury during the April meeting when they plan to further discuss the priority list.