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Show Lack Of Planning And Engineering Are Weaknesses In Utah Roads: i Foundation FMes Study Report Lack of adequate planning and" engineering services are the principal prin-cipal weaknesses in Utah's loral road program. This was the exclusion ex-clusion reached by Utah Foundation, Founda-tion, the private non-profit tux research organization, in a recent study of locai load' anci street administration ad-ministration in Utah. Foundation analysts point out that competent engineering would prevent the use of faulty materials and would assure adequate base design in the construction of roads and streets.. Long-range planning would minimiz; the waste incurred through the cj-islr ic.tion of the wiong type of ro.i.l for a given location, thus reducing mainten-arce mainten-arce costs and T.U'ig more funds available for new construction. Few local road departments at present operate under engineering supervision or utilize engineering assistance in the' construction of their roads according to the study. Another major problem citod by the report is the large number of separate operating units involved in the expenditure of the road funds in Utah. The study points out that there are 240 separate governments in Utah, involving more' than 1,000 local officials, that may spend money for road purposes. Make Counties Responsible In order to reduce the overlapping overlap-ping and duplication created by this situation, the study suggested' that the Legislature might make counties responsible for all road work done in towns and turn over to the counties state aid now going go-ing to towns. Such a move' would reduce the number of separate local lo-cal operating agencies in the state from 240 to 118. Such arrangements arrange-ments by the counties and towns and even some third class cities now exist on a voluntary basis in some localities. With respect to the problem of overlapping and duplication in road actvitites by the municipalities municipali-ties and counties, the Foundation points out that much of it could be overcome if the various governmental govern-mental units would coordinate their construction and maintenance activities in "advance. The report suggests that one' means of accomplishing5 ac-complishing5 this is by the formation forma-tion of councils in each county-at which representatives of the municipalities, mu-nicipalities, the county, and : the State' Road Commission could discuss dis-cuss their problems and plan in advance' the coming construction and maintenance work; ' ' The study notes that a complaint of many city resident;, is that they must pay twice-' for local roads and streets. City residents point out that city property - owners own-ers are subject to the county road tax as well as their own city tax for streets and ' sidewalks. County residents on the other hand pay only the county tax for Toads. . In order to correct this tax inequity, in-equity, a plan is suggested 'which would include: (1) The support of all roads of county wide importance (even if they , happen to be within ' incorporated incor-porated municipalites) by a county tax on all residents of the county. (2) The support of local access roads which benefit only county residents by 'a tax on . property outside of incorporated cities.- 3) The requirement that all special' improvements "in the county, coun-ty, such as paving local access streets and the 'construction - of curbs and" gutters, be financed through special improvement districts dis-tricts as is now the case' in cities. Other important local road' and street topics discussed in the Utah Foundation report include: ' (1) The constitutional question regarding the legality of the State's sharing highway-user revenues re-venues with local governments.. (2) The encouragement of construction con-struction and improvement of local lo-cal roads as opposed to spending most' of the available road moneys for maintenance. :- (3) , The lack of engineering data regarding local road needs and the difficulty of determining whether local governments at piesent are receiving too little or too much as their share of available highway high-way useT revenue. (4) The' possibility of adding a fourth factor vehicle travel to the allocation formula for distributing distrib-uting state aid to local governments. govern-ments. Such distribution is now based upon population, road mileage mile-age and land area. |
