Park County, Colorado, Tax Payers Shouldn't Pay for Recent Road Repairs

Ask anyone who lives in the small town of Bailey, Colorado, what they think of Park County Road and Bridge, and I'm sure that they will give you an earful. Beautiful Park County, Colorado, has some of the worst county-maintained roads in rural Colorado, especially in the small town of Bailey, which sits right on Jefferson and Park counties' lines. Constant rain this summer hasn't been kind to the already damaged roads in the town, and there were enough complaints from residents, that something had to be done. So, that's just what they intended to do.

Park County Road and Bridge decided to undertake a Chip-Seal repair on Park County Road 43 and Park County Road 72. This type of repair is performed on asphalt roads, and like government regulated industries, there are specifications that need to be met to insure that the job is done correctly. Well, apparently no one told Road and Bridge this. This type of repair requires, among many other requirements, the road to be graded down so that the damaged layers of road have been removed, to lay layers of clean specification gravel down and seal over it with hot oil, and to do this until the road is once again at the original state, with no moisture on the road. If one of these steps is done incorrectly, or the materials that are being used are not to specification then the road will not hold, and will have to be ripped up and done again.

While not everyone that resides in Park County is a Road and Bridge expert, they don't need to be to know that this well overdue fix will not hold. I have heard from more than one non-expert resident that they don't believe that the road will hold out past March of next year, some have given an even grimmer time frame for yet another necessary road repair. These opinions of the non-expert residents closely match the opinion of the people that do know exactly what they are talking about.