Dirt roads connect our community, criss crossing from business to home to hiking grounds. But who is responsible for these dirt roads, especially those that are within the bounds of our local governments? Twentynine Palms City Manager Stone James was the guest on the Z107.7 Up Close Show recently, and he spoke with host Gary Daigneault about how some dirt roads come to be, and the City’s responsibility and costs for maintaining “social” dirt roads.
In the interview, Gary cited an example of two neighbors who have created a “social road” between their properties, and if one neighbor now wants the city to pave or maintain that unofficial road between properties, it can become the financial responsibility of the City rather than the two property owners who created it.
Stone James: “Roads in Twentynine Palms cost about $1.3 million dollars per mile… it’s the paving, the engineering… everything that goes into that. I completely respect and understand why when residents say ‘hey why don’t you pave my road’ and I know that the City Council would like to do that. But at $1.3 million dollars per mile, that’s stunningly expensive. If we pave the road, guess what we are now doing? Maintaining that road and maintaining that road for the next 100 years. Then in 20 years when that road has broken down enough now we have to completely repave it.
“There’s this desire to substantially improve the roads in the community, but there is a cost with that, and that’s the balance.”
Gary went on to ask about dirt road maintenance after a storm, and cited a conversation with Third District Representative Dawn Rowe where she said once the County works on a dirt road that isn’t owned by the County, it now has legal liability for what happens on that road.
He asked Stone if the same was also true within the City of Twentynine Palms, to which the City Manager replied “you bet.”
You can hear the full conversation below or on our podcasts page.
