Rowan County officials reported the county’s blacktop operation fell short of its goals in 2024. Judge Executive Harry Clark said some county roads were paved in the spring, but those routes were left over from 2023.
Clark added this is because contractors usually prioritize state roads over county ones, meaning county roads are often blacktopped at the end of the year.
“So, the same contractors do the state and then the county and the state has priority obviously. One, it’s a priority because of more money, two, it’s a bigger job. So, the county usually gets at the end of the blacktop cycle,” said Clark.
Clark said in addition to focusing on state roads first, workers often traveled between job sites.
“So, that automatically put them behind on our full amount of blacktop where we were going to lay because they did part of ours in the spring. They were planning on doing it in the fall, but they stayed with the state longer and they have other counties to do as well. So, they try to get here and there, and I know they went to Morgan County in the middle of our blacktop part but stopped here, went to Morgan County stayed a couple days, came back here, stayed a day. So, a lot of shuffling around,” said Clark.
Clark said if the current contractors are unable to complete the paving process in a reasonable amount of time, the county will be authorized to switch providers. He added the county usually chooses the cheapest bidder, but the contractors they can switch to are sometimes cheaper or the same cost.