TUCSON, Ariz (KGUN) — It’s not just a bump in the road when you hit bumps all the time. It is hard on you, hard on your car and dangerous too. Pima County’s devoting millions of dollars to fix main roads and small neighborhood streets.
If there's one thing we hear a lot about and governments really hear a lot about it's roads. The roads you take may be congested and you might be afraid they'll break your car. Pima County says its new budget has almost $70 million to help fix that.
“Smooth roads don't kill cars. Bad roads, kill cars.”
Leroy Ingram sees the condition of local roads in the busted suspensions in the broken cars that limp into his service bays at Ooroo Auto.
“Not only is it an irritation, but it is definitely a problem. If you notice on a rough road, your car kind of tends to want to wander around as you're driving on the road. So yeah, it is a safety issue."
Many Pima County roads are so bad that on a scale of one to one hundred they score a 40 or worse. That classes them as failed roads. Sometimes failed roads are beyond repair; they have to be torn out and replaced.
Pima County has set a goal to have its roads score at least 80, defined as very good condition. It’s a big job. The date for that goal is eight years away.
The County spent more than $177 million on roads in the last two years. The County says that covered about 750 miles of road. The new County budget for fiscal year 2023 spends another $66.8 million to repair or preserve 272 miles of roadway.
To avoid a tax hike to cover road repair, the county looked at bonds it has paid off. Bonds are how governments borrow money. The money it was using on those bonds is applied to roads.
Another part of the road budget comes from a share of the tax you pay for gas. But Pima County says that tax alone does not cover the cost.
When gas prices go up that does not bring in more gas tax. That’s because gas tax is calculated per gallon, not by price. When people buy less gas, less money comes in from gas tax—and now that cars get much better mileage, that reduces gas tax income too.
It’s only natural to want to see when a road near you is set for repair. You can see a list at the webpage for Pima County Transportation.
RELATED: Pima County Transportation budget sets aside $66.8 million for road repairs
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
