LAKE COUNTY – If the roads around the county seem a little bumpier this year, it isn't just your imagination – local officials are finding that the pavement appears to be falling apart at an accelerated pace.

In Lakeport, Main Street has deteriorated so badly over the past year that city staff went to the City Council last week to report that the project to rehabilitate the street may need to be completely redesigned.

City Engineer Scott Harter told the council that that the South Main Street Pavement Rehabilitation Project was designed last spring. Granite Construction Co. won the bid to do the work in September.

But his report to the council stated, "The condition of South Main Street has changed dramatically from last spring when the project was designed. The original design is no longer appropriate and does not address the deficiencies which now exist in the road structural section."

Harter said the project's scope needs to be redefined in order to address the roadway's current conditions "yet still be mindful of the project budget."

Included in the staff report was a letter to Public Works Director Doug Grider from Paul Curren, a senior principal engineer with the firm Pavement Engineering Inc., a consultant on the project.

Curren's letter notes that tests of the road surfaces shown they've "radically changed" over the past year.

"The rapid deterioration is uncommon, but it does happen," Curren wrote.

He said he researched lake levels to see if last year's heavy rains may have affected the roads, although he doesn't believe the rains were an issue.

However, the pavement, he said, "has descended into major structural breakdown."

As such, Curren wrote, the designed overlay is "no longer feasible or recommended."

Harter told the council, "This project has been going through some changes, and it's actually been changing even daily."

Curren found that over the winter, the road conditions "degraded significantly,” Harter said.

Harter said Curren theorized that the January freezes may have been partly to blame for the road deterioration.

During a five-day period in January roads suffered freezing temperatures 18 hours and more each day, said Harter. He said Curren has reported seeing the same problem in other parts of the state where he is doing pavement analysis.

"He's not absolutely positive why it happened," said Harter.

Curren, who also is working for the county to study pavement conditions in certain areas, noted increased wear on those roads as well, said Harter. "It's a phenomenon that's not just localized to South Main Street.”

Councilman Bob Rumfelt also said he had noticed road conditions worsening around the county.

In Lakeport, South Main's base and subgrade levels have failed, Harter said, citing Curren's findings.

The South Main project originally called for little or no new pavement overlay on some areas, Harter said. The road has since degraded to the extent that some areas will now need as much as 6 inches of new pavement surface to make them drivable, he said.

Harter said Curren suggested the city wait for four to six more weeks before deciding how to proceed. Curren suggested letting the road base dry out a few more weeks and running more tests on the pavement surface.

"We don't want to spend $400,000 on a project that is not going to last," Harter said.

The intention, Harter added, is to complete the project before the next winter rolls around.

He said that Granite Construction has said they're willing to wait on the project in order to find out new test results.

The ideal fix is to mill out the whole road is to put 10 inches of new pavement, said Harter. But, he added, the city doesn't have that kind of money.

Councilman Jim Irwin said they needed to get the money and fix the road properly to keep the problems from reoccurring.

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