Posted to The Road Ahead by Erica Okada
After inheriting 179 miles of poorly maintained roads, Millcreek has struggled to keep up. Over the past decade, the city has used pavement preservation treatments whenever possible. However, funding from the gas tax keeps dropping as vehicles improve in fuel efficiency, and road treatments keep getting more expensive due to rising inflation. Fewer roads are treated each year as a result. In 2024 and 2025, the city council allocated $1 million from the general fund to help plug the hole and band-aid some deteriorating roads. Despite this additional funding and winning some grants to help, cracks and potholes in our roads persist. Residents rightly feel frustrated, feeling that the road treatment is inadequate or that they've been neglected.
We want to improve every single road in Millcreek, but with our current funding levels, it will take more than 50 years to address all of them, and that's only if we can keep up on maintenance treatments! We're running at a pace where the condition of our roads has passed their lifespan. The current path is unsustainable.