Workers recently replaced aging curbs, gutters and sidewalks, and repaved Market Street east of Bullard Street to the Big Ditch Bridge. Photo by Lisa Jimenez for the Town of Silver CitySilver City, NM -- One of the most important and highly visible, yet least understood functions of local government is road construction and maintenance projects. The Town of Silver City’s website even offers a link for reporting potholes, yet most residents have little understanding of how road improvements happen (or don’t).
Road improvements are funded primarily by federal taxpayer dollars passed to state government, then down to the local level through a mix of highly competitive state and federal grant programs. Ideally funds are also appropriated by the state legislature, though the current state budget crisis has left no funds for local projects.
Both federal and state funds for road projects have decreased significantly in recent years, explained Alex Brown, Silver City town manager and finance director. The Cooperative Agreement Project Fund, for instance, which used to provide some $200,000 to Silver City for annual road improvements and maintenance, is now just $60,000. And there’s no end in sight to continued funding challenges.
“We have 76 miles of town roads and we’re just trying to maintain them to be as safe as possible, even as funding is harder and harder to come by,” said Brown. Moreover, he and Public Works Director Peter Peña must try and match local road and infrastructure priorities to these various funding sources, each of which has very specific criteria.
“It’s like trying to put together a puzzle every year,” Brown said. “We may not be able to fund those projects that are local priorities because they don’t meet the exact funding criteria, so we have to find those projects that best fit the funding available to us.”
Grant funds are critical because the town budget just isn’t large enough to pay for road improvements and manage day-to-day operations. Even the annual chip and fog seal projects which extend the life of town roads and streets depend upon grant funding, said Peña. This year, for example, about half of the $110,000 expenditure for this local road maintenance program was funded by a federal pass-through to the state.
As projects make it to the top of the priority list, they are developed over time in phases. Once the funding source is determined, engineers develop the scope of work, estimate the cost, then Peña applies for grant funding. If funds are awarded, project design begins and the town advertises for construction bids through the public procurement process, as required by law.
“We apply for all kinds of grant funds every year, then hope we are funded so that we can make needed infrastructure improvements to keep our roads and other infrastructure in good working condition,” said Peña. “It’s more and more challenging every year.”