Protecting town roads

What’s an equivalent single axle load?

By FRITZ MAYER

KAUNEONGA LAKE, NY — If a town wants to protect its roads against, say, hundreds or thousands of trucks related to gas drilling, officials must know first how many miles of roads the town has, and what the roads are made of. And then, it gets a little bit complicated.

Town of Tusten Supervisor Ben Johnson went to the Town of Bethel meeting on June 3 to explain the steps being taken in Tusten to protect its town roads. Johnson told the Bethel lawmakers that in order to be able to get gas companies to fully pay for any damage they might do to roads, it’s necessary to do a scientific analysis of roads in preparing any fee assessment or bonding plan.

Tusten has four types of roads: earthen, gravel, cold-mix asphalt and hot-mix asphalt. And each of them will be affected differently by heavy truck use. To adequately measure possible damage, engineers calculate the wear and tear on a road with a measure called an equivalent single axle load (ESAL), which was developed by the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTA).

Johnson stressed that town officials can’t arbitrarily come up with a large figure to charge gas companies simply because they’re wealthy companies. He said that the figure has to be reached by using scientific methodology.

He said, “AASHTA says that if you’ve got a gravel road, the life expectancy of that gravel road is going to be 3,000 ESALs. So, if you have a company coming in and they’re going to have 15,000 ESALs, if that road had a life expectancy of about three years, now it’s going to have a life expectancy of about six months.”

A couple of the Bethel board members looked a bit skeptical.

“I don’t know if people understand how many trucks will be going in and out of a well-drilling site,” said Johnson. “A million gallons of water comes in, depending on the size of the truck, 400 to 500 tractor-trailer loads of water coming in and out of a site. The majority of our roads are not sufficiently developed to handle this type of traffic.”

Bethel councilman Richard Crumley recalled a time in the 1980s when gas drilling operations caused damage to the roads while conducting seismic testing. Crumley said the town sent the company a bill for road repairs and the company paid it without any problem.

Johnson agreed that it might often be the case that companies would be willing to pay for any damages, but he said that disagreements do arise. He noted that the Town of Cochecton had a $250,000 bond from the Millennium Pipeline Company but, according to Cochecton officials, the company created $1 million in damages to roads while laying the new pipeline. The company has promised to repair the roads by early fall, but they are also asking for proof that the company damaged them.

Johnson said, “These roads have to stay open for the ambulance service, the fire service, school buses, and no town here can afford to have a $1 million worth of damage to one of the roads, be expected to fix it, and get into a legal battle with any of these companies that are coming in.”

Johnson touched on other areas that might concern town officials, such as possibly requiring restoration of land after use. There are zoning and planning laws on the books that would, for instance, cover the development of a 300-acre tract of land. But because gas drillers are exempt from land-use laws, they can put a 2,000-foot driveway on the parcel without permits. When the drilling platform is gone, and only perhaps a pumping station remains, will town officials want to allow that driveway to be used for additional development? Johnson asked, “Does it fit with the comprehensive plan of the town? What do we do with these questions that have never been asked before?”

Johnson’s hope is that towns will be allowed to participate in some ways in the permitting process, and Tusten and the four other towns that are involved in a highway assessment program are pushing for a greater role for towns as part of the states’ Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement process.

The assessment program is an outgrowth of a multi-jurisdictional task force facilitated by the Sullivan County Planning Division with the Towns of Delaware, Cochecton, Tusten, Highland, and Lumberland, whose mission is to develop a comprehensive impact strategy to protect road infrastructure in preparation for gas drilling. The Town of Callicoon has joined in the road assessment effort.

The Bethel board has not yet decided if it will join the other towns in the road assessment program.