Photo: A failed asphalt surface in the Vista subdivision.
Archuleta County is not known for the conditions of its streets and roads. For excellent scenery, yes… but not for excellent streets and roads.
The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners, who are responsible for maintaining most of the community’s streets and roads, would like to do a better job with that assignment. But the money is not always there, for various reasons. Or so we are told.
At the July 23 BOCC work session, interim County Manager Jack Harper II, gave the commissioners a brief overview of road projects.
Commissioner Warren Brown asked Mr. Harper about a project that had not yet been mentioned in the report.
“Yesterday, you and I had a brief conversation about the Vista… actually, I think it was last week…”
That is, the Vista subdivision, one of the only neighborhoods in Pagosa Springs specifically intended for mobile homes. That is to say, a trailer park. And as a trailer park, it’s one of the most density-populated neighborhoods in the county. We have many, many neighborhoods where the minimum lot size is 1/4 acre or larger. The lots in the Vista are typically about 1/8 acre. And the subdivision is also one of the most ‘built out’ neighborhoods. This means the streets are some of the most highly trafficked residential streets in the community.
Commissioner Brown: “Do we have an update on that? And just to let the folks know, who are listening, the commissioners at some point in the last couple of months, we had commented to the fact that we are trying to get out there, drag the ditches, hit the surface… and then, put some type of hard surface… chip and seal or something… this year.
“And then I was contacted by some constituents that they were told, there’s not going to be any type of hard surface. Just dirt. Dirt work and dragging the gutters, essentially, or the ditches.”
Manager Harper: “Yes, sir. I visited with [County Public Works Director] Mike Torres yesterday, about that matter, and as you said, that’s what it will be. And he also said there were no monies appropriated in the budget this year, to even do the chipseal. So they were always looking at it from a multi-year standpoint.”
Commissioner Brown: “Okay.”
Commissioner Ronnie Maez: “Yeah, just to bring you up to date. The first update was to actually get out there and do some chip and seal, but because of the lack of oversight in the Road and Bridge, and the $2 million spent on the other roads, they’d taken that away. So we had to juggle things around so that we can get things done.”
An interesting comment, about lack of oversight. A previous Road and Bridge Director, Kevin Pogue, was fired in 2023, and blamed, by then-County Manager Derek Woodman, for ordering unplanned paving expenditures, to the tune of about $1.7 million (as I recall).
Several months later, Mr. Woodman was himself fired (actually, did not have his contract renewed) by the BOCC after implied accusations of incompetence. It was my sense that the “$2 million spent on other roads” in 2023 constituted one of the black marks against Mr. Woodman. His “lack of oversight.”
But in the end, it’s the BOCC who is ultimately responsible for the fact that the Vista will not have its streets properly repaired this year, as had been promised.
Meanwhile, we will note that the BOCC directed their staff, last month, to negotiate a property purchase for a shiny new County administration building.
I took a casual drive through the Vista a couple of days ago, to see just how bad the roads were, and to my surprise, it seemed that most of the roads (though not all) were a decent shape. Of course, they are almost all gravel roads, except for a few that are paved. Hard to believe that it’s been 50 years since this densely-populated subdivision was platted, and only a few of the roads are currently paved.
Most of the paved sections seemed to be in decent shape; I found only a couple of really bad spots. Most of the numerous gravel streets looked like they’d been recently graded.
I felt a bit confused by the July 23 discussion about “chip and seal”. Chipseal, to my understanding, is a method for extending the life of a paved road that is still in good condition, and is not typically something you would apply to a dirt road, because it adds no structural strength.
[Chip seal] can keep good pavement in good condition by sealing out water, but provides no structural strength and will repair only minor cracks. While the small stones used as surface yield a relatively even surface without the edges of patches, it also results in a very rough surface that leads to louder rolling noise from automobile wheels.
Although chipseal is an effective low-cost way to repair roads, it has some drawbacks. Loose crushed stone is often left on the surface, owing to under-application of bitumen or over-application of stone. If not removed, this can cause safety and environmental problems such as cracked windshields, chipped paint, loss-of-control crashes (especially for motorcyclists, bicyclists and small trucks), and deposition of foreign material into drainage courses.
This description suggests that applying chipseal to a road in poor condition is essentially a waste of tax money. Although, it might last long enough to get you re-elected.