If you don't like road conditions in American Fork, wait a few years. It'll get worse.

More than half the city's roads would have zero remaining service life in 2011, unless the city spends more money maintaining, repairing and replacing its roads. That's the message Director of Public Works Howard Denney gave to the City Council at a recent work session.

It could cost $117 million to bring the roads up to a 20-year life condition, he said.

"This is to bring all of our roads into 'new' condition," Denney said. "No one would probably even begin to be able to afford that. But it gives us an idea what the dollar value would be to bring them up to premiere performance."

Mayor Heber Thompson echoed Denney's sentiments.

"We don't think we will launch onto a $100-million-plus road improvement plan tomorrow," he said in an interview. "But we need to put that into a top priority and figure out how to make some heavy inroads.

Denney presented another option -- leaving minor roads, most of them in residential areas, with few if any repairs, no matter what their condition, and bringing arterial and collector-class roads to nearly new status.

"That costs $22 million," Denney said. "They didn't want to hear this one either."

Council members said they would take the numbers into consideration, look at ways they could find funding to improve the roads and give Denney direction to quantify more options.

The council increased property tax rates for residents last year to provide $500,000 for road improvements, said Councilman Dale Gunther. Of that about $490,000 was earmarked for roads, with the rest going to trails, said Cathy Jensen, the city's budget officer.

In addition, the city gets money that state collected in gas taxes, which is called the B&C road fund, Gunther said in a phone interview.

"That amount varies from year to year," he said. "That has to cover other things besides maintenance, like snow removal."

Jensen said the city's projected revenue from the state for those funds is $875,000 for the coming fiscal year. The majority of that is planned for regular road maintenance, which is done most years.

Denney said those amounts would not be sufficient.

"We need more money for roads than we are currently putting in," he said.

The longer the city waits to make the road improvements, the more they will cost, for two reasons -- one is that the prices themselves will most likely increase. Also, the road conditions will continue to deteriorate. As the city continues to expand, it will encompass additional roads that are already built and are currently in the county. Denney said those will definitely need improvement.

"Most of the county roads in the area have been made by chip seal only," he said. That is one method the city uses to extend the life of its roads. In it, a layer of oil is spread on the road, then chips are placed over it, which the vehicles compress into the road surface.

Denney took his information from a study done in 2007 that analyzed the city streets and made estimates based on cutting trenches in almost every street for the pressurized irrigation system. Only about two-thirds of the streets have had that trenching done so far, he said.

In 2001, the average remaining service life of the city's streets was 10.7 years. In the 2007 report, the estimated average service life, including what was then the future impact of the pressurized irrigation system, was 3.7 years.

Nestor Gallo, of the city's Engineering Department, said the city has a pavement management program, which can be used to keep roads in their best condition.

"All streets have a life cycle of 20 years," he said. "That can be extended through preventive maintenance."

Gallo said the amount and type of traffic affects how long roads last.

"American Fork is a cut-through traffic city and therefore the road life decreases," he said. Another damaging element is water, which gets into cracks in the road, then expands when it freezes, causing increased cracking and damage.

In the pavement management program, there is an analysis of costs related to various methods of rehabilitation. They range from 25 cents a square yard for early treatment to $75 per square yard for complete reconstruction. Roads that have three or fewer years of remaining service life would be scheduled for reconstruction.

50 South road project

The city is close to awarding bids for improvements to 50 South, from 700 East to 1100 East. Work on the project is expected to begin around the end of July. The engineer's estimate of the cost is $3.2 million, with $2.799 million coming from federal stimulus funds and the city paying 6.77 percent of the remainder.

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