Oil boom in South Texas destroying roads; state wants to return some to gravel

The booming Texas oil business is wreaking havoc on rural roads in the southern part of the state, and the state Department of Transportation is under fire for suggesting 83 miles of farm-to-market paved roads damaged by constant semi-truck traffic be returned to gravel instead of being repaired, Aman Batheja reports for The Texas Tribune. "Following a public outcry, the agency issued a 60-day moratorium on converting any roads. That has turned the end of October into a looming deadline for county officials hoping to find a way off the so-called gravel list. And as they consider options that include taking over the maintenance of the roads or soliciting donations from the energy sector, the officials say they are being punished for their region’s boom." (Tribune photo by Eddie Seal)

"The South Texas drilling boom has added billions of dollars to the state’s coffers; it has also badly damaged local infrastructure," Batheja writes. "Around the region, drivers must now navigate around and across yawning potholes, cracked asphalt and splintering shoulders. The department has struggled to maintain its farm-to-market roads, which were not designed to handle the weight of the thousands of heavy trucks that now regularly traverse rural communities." Judge Jim Huff of Live Oak County said at a public meeting, “We’re sending money up there, and we’re getting nothing back. That’s what the public perceives."

John Barton, deputy executive director of the TxDOT, "said the agency lacked the funds to maintain some of the roads as asphalt," Batheja writes. "Repaved roads that would typically last a decade are wearing away in three to four years. The road conditions and drilling-related traffic are contributing to a spike in accidents." Judge Francisco G. Ponce of Dimmit County said, “TxDOT’s priorities are not in the rural counties. I don’t know how they can sit here and say it’s safer to gravel a road than it is to fix a road.” (Read more)