When it comes to budgeting for county roads, Wise County Commissioner Colby Shawn tackles a three-part challenge: Road failures are increasing, costs continue to rise, and public expectations remain high.
“We have limited dollars but unlimited needs,” Shawn shared during a presentation on county roads during April’s West Texas Conference. “That is the reality.”
While counties receive some state funding to maintain roads, most of the cost is absorbed at the local level. Meanwhile, price hikes and inflation continue to affect road budgets, with TxDOT citing a 66.85 percent increase in the Highway Cost Index from August 2021 to August 2025.
“We have limited funding compared to cities and TxDOT,” noted Shawn, who took office in January 2023. “We have to learn to do more with less.”
How Do We Spend Smarter?
“Our job isn’t just fixing roads,” Shawn observed. “It’s making sure every dollar we spend today builds a stronger road system for tomorrow.” Shawn has 220-plus miles of county roads and 25 bridges to maintain in his precinct. Facing increased development pressure and heavy truck traffic in key corridors, Shawn took a look at past practices, the status quo, and future needs. Overall lessons learned included the following:
- Fix Drainage First.
- Don’t Surface Failed Base.
- Track Real Costs.
- Plan Long Term.
During the conference class, Shawn cited specific strategies such as avoiding what he termed the “$1 Million Mistake,” or treating base failure as a surface problem.
“Repeated chip seals on failed roads, ongoing patching, and short-term fixes will result in a never-ending spending cycle, or a potential $1 million mistake,” Shawn explained. “You have to ask early on whether or not the base is failing. If the answer is yes, then you have to consider a rebuild.”
Developing a system to track costs is crucial. “If you don’t track it, you can’t manage it,” Shawn emphasized. “You have to know your numbers, and you have to keep up with costs.”
The “22-A-Year Problem”
Parker County Precinct 2 has 435 miles of county roads, reported Commissioner Jacob Holt, who also took office in January 2023. The lifespan of a road is not exact with variables including subgrade condition, traffic volume, etc., Holt noted. Assuming the lifespan of a road is approximately 20 years, Holt worked the following equation: 435 miles divided by 20 years = 22 miles a year
“How do I reconstruct 22 miles a year?” Holt asked himself. “The answer is, I don’t! We cannot reconstruct 22-plus miles of road per year,” Holt maintained. “We can easily chip seal 22-plus miles of road per year. So, we have set the goal to get out of the reconstruction business and into the resurfacing business.”
Bad subgrade is synonymous with road failure, Holt said, and roughly 50 percent of the Precinct 2 roads have poor subgrade. The road crew is in the process of reconstructing/stabilizing those roads to get ahead of the game.
“You can’t ‘band-aid’ the road by slapping down some asphalt because you will be back there after the next heavy rain,” Holt continued. “We can resurface far more miles per year if we aren’t having to also reconstruct the subgrade.”
Following their conference presentation, Commissioner Shawn and Commissioner Holt welcomed officials with specific road questions to contact them personally at colby.shawn@co.wise.tx.us and j.holt@parkercountytx.com, respectively.