Roads are scheduled in the Strategic Plan to start in 2013. The original timing was determined based on 3 ideas: 1) we would have built up the reserve account adequately to pay for a major portion of the replacement, 2) we wanted to wait until after construction of a community center to reduce the wear & tear on Clubhouse Drive, 3) waiting allowed time to build up the shoulders in low places to prevent erosion of the road edges common throughout the community.

Our roads have deteriorated more quickly than expected, however, the recent patching has improved road surfaces fairly dramatically. We budget for road patching every year, so costs for it do not come out of our reserve account.

The initial thinking was that we would replace most, if not all, of our roads in one shot. However, that would delay starting the project, since we will not have the cash saved to do the entire project for several years. The strategic plan now shows an expenditure of $300K each year for 4 years, or $1.2M total, starting in 2013. Breaking the project out over 4 years makes it more affordable and easier to prepare for and implement. 

It has been suggested that we start the roads project immediately. There are a couple of problems with that approach. First of all, there are places where the road edges are crumbling because the road surface is higher than ground level. The shoulders in these areas must be filled, packed, grass planted and taking root before we pave. Repacking shoulders will be done by our new maintenance contractor during the winter months. This process will take at least a year. If this preparation is not done, the new road will crumble just like the existing roads are doing. Another problem with beginning this project early is Clubhouse Drive, which does the most to communicate Lockwood’s beauty, is in the worst condition, but to minimize wear and tear from heavy truck traffic, it needs to be done last. This is particularly true when we consider all the construction traffic associated with paving the side roads and a new community center. Therefore, we have to decide what is more important—making Clubhouse Drive attractive but reducing the life of the repaving expense, or patching Clubhouse Drive yearly and repaving it last in the order, when construction traffic will be reduced. Based on the excellent results of the recent patching, it seems to make most sense to adhere to the original schedule. For the time being, we are leaving the roads project start date in 2013.