Dirt Roads Help Some Cities, Counties Drive Down Costs

Some roads in Montpelier, Vermont, have gotten a bit rumbly. Faced with decaying pavement and a long list of capital projects to be funded, officials in Vermont’s capital decided in 2009 to grind up some of the city’s streets and combine the asphalt with underlying gravel. Since then, just over of a mile of Montpelier’s streets have been converted, said Thomas McArdle, the city’s public works director. Residents largely have embraced the change, he said, and it’s projected to save Montpelier at least half of what it would have spent to pave and maintain the roads over the next 20 years. Montpelier isn’t alone. As infrastructure budgets have been hit hard by dwindling gasoline tax revenue that typically funds transportation projects, some cities and counties have abandoned plans to repave crumbling roads surfaced at a time when asphalt and labor were cheaper. There have been about 70 such conversions, stretching along 550 miles of road in at least 27 states, according to a 2015 review of the projects produced by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program.