Long-term outlook unclear
County Engineer Paul Assman spoke with the Crawford County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday about the challenges price inflation is presenting for the Secondary Road Department.
The first item he noted was the bid the county received for a proposed new concrete bridge to be constructed on H Avenue northwest of Westside.
Assman had estimated the project at $375,000, but the low bid was for $517,207.
He had used an average price of $550 per cubic yard of concrete for his estimate of the 168-cubic-yard project, but the cost in the bid was for $1,100 per cubic yard; that alone added $90,000, he said.
Removal of the old bridge was priced at $66,000; Assman’s estimate was $15,000.
“It’s not going to get any cheaper,” he said.
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Board Chairman Kyle Schultz said that if everyone increases their prices, no additional work will get done with funds provided by the recent federal infrastructure bill.
Assman said the bridge is on a high-volume road and requires more durable construction.
He agreed that getting 30% more money wouldn’t result in 30% more work accomplished.
“We’ll be lucky if we get five,” he said.
Supervisor Ty Rosburg asked what would have to be trimmed to pay for a more expensive bridge.
Assman said the question would be whether enough funds will remain in the account used for road/bridge projects a year from now for another contract bridge project he hopes to do.
The county has been aggressive in borrowing ahead (state and federal funds) for such projects, he said.
“If I had six years’ worth of balance in my account right now, it would buy a lot less,” Assman said.
The buying power has diminished by 20% to 30%, he said.
“We’d get three bridges where we got four or five built,” he said.
Farm to Market funds could be used to fill a funding gap for a bridge next year, but a bridge project might have to be canceled in the following year, he said.
The supervisors voted to accept the bid from Murphy Heavy Contracting Corporation for the bridge project.
In a discussion of the Secondary Roads budget, Assman said he would either have to revise the budget numbers he had given to the supervisors or he would have to do a budget amendment later.
He said six items were driving a $470,000 increase to his budget: gasoline, diesel fuel, lumber (timber bridge plank) steel H-piling, structural steel and corrugated metal pipe.
Schultz asked if fuel prices could be locked in to save money.
Assman said the department locks in LP gas every year, but he is wary of locking in gas/diesel because prices could fall and the county would end up paying much more than necessary.
Supervisor Ty Rosburg said he doubted that fuel prices would fall.
“It’s like selling corn,” Schultz countered. “If you could sell some every day … you’d hit the high and the low and your average would be good.”
Assman said that is essentially his philosophy because the county buys a tanker of fuel every six to eight weeks.
He noted that creosote planking is no longer going to be manufactured, so the bridge crew is considering building future single-span bridges with a concrete deck instead of planking.
The bridge crew has traditionally built bridges with steel and wood; concrete bridges are built by contractors.
Assman said the county bridge crew has been very busy and the department will have to buy a lot of materials in the next fiscal year to keep them working because inventory is depleted.
Increased prices would mean that the ending balances in fiscal year 2023 would be reduced from $1.553 million to $1.086 million.
He said the downward trend of ending balances can’t continue.
The issue was part of a larger discussion for a later date about where the department is going in the next five years, Assman said.