I suggest that those choosing to write (or raise fees or taxes) concerning our pavement program actually read the report found at fh.az.gov/DocumentCenter/View/3767/Pavement-Mgmt-Analysis-Report-PDF.

Many may be surprised about the true condition of our infrastructure and solutions for our maintenance management issues.

Had they read the report they would have discovered that our roads are in “good” rated condition with a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) of 60. Most area towns are rated with PCI’s of 60-65(page 21).

They’d have found that our “backlog” (roads rated as “poor” and “very poor” requiring expensive base reconstruction) is very small. Our main “arterial” roads, like Saguaro, have no “backlog”. “Collector” streets have less than 1 percent. Even our local roads were found to have a minimal serious reconstructive backlog of 8.4 percent.

Overall, only 4.5 percent of our streets need reconstructive work (Figure 11, page 22). “Manageable” backlog is recommended to be under 15 percent (page 26). They also would have found that the primary cause of our local street damage appears to be heavy mechanical garbage and recycle trucks. This may be responsible for 33 to 50 percent of our local street loading damage (page 29). Charging a waste management fee would be fairer than assessed property fee.

We have yet to establish a long-term cost model with reasonable condition acceptance criteria and costs. Only two were provided; one with $2 million per year funding and another with extravagantly high PCI and expensively low backlog requirements. Neither addresses a reasonable approach of keeping a “good” condition value and less than 15 percent backlog.

It’s time we ditched the dogma hysterics of “we need more money!” and “our infrastructure is crumbling!” and address our capital issues in a data driven and prudent manner.

Fearmongering is no substitute for reasoned planning.