I have heard from a number of people who live in homeowner and property owner associations and the concerns they have regarding roads, as well as water runoff and the issues which can be related with them.

Having recently been involved in the review and selection process of evaluating solutions for road work, it pays to spend time talking to contractors in the area.

I found some to be knowledgeable and intent on making sure we understood the nuances of the options available and the anticipated useful life of the corrections. It was a learning experience.

Doing research can involve a fair amount of time, phone calls and face-to-face visits (socially distanced of course). In my opinion, you must review repair options as the cost of the repairs can be significant.

The options available are effectively related to the duration of their effectiveness, or how long they will last before additional maintenance is required. The communication and correspondence I have had with other associations is restricted to asphalt roads, versus concrete or gravel.

Contacting contractors for bids will take some time. If you use an internet search exclusively, you will find contractors sites who are no longer in business, are not in the area, or advertise they Do it all and actually only focus on certain type of road repairs and particular size of the project.

A smaller community can have a challenging time finding a contractor who is willing to make the trip out to give you a bid. I found creating a set of slides, using the tools of Google Maps was very helpful as a point of reference. On the slides we showed a shot of the entire community with the distances noted, using the Measure distance tool.

Using the slides as a guideline makes it clear which streets are involved in the repair and the approximate linear distance.

With any community, when it comes to spending money and special assessments, you will encounter a full range of emotion, from logical to laughable. If the association has been fiscally responsible and has a reserve for this type of maintenance, good for you.

Finding a solution which is acceptable to a majority of the Association is the objective. If there are empty lots in the lots in the association, the special assessment must be applied to all lots uniformly. As all lots will benefit from the road work.

For asphalt roads, you can have the existing surface repaired and recoated with a new layer of asphalt, repair problem areas and crack sealing, or repair problem areas, crack seal and coating or resealing.

The contractors we have had discussion were clear the areas which are in need of repair must be repaired prior to the new layer of asphalt or even to be resealed. Surface repair entails digging out the existing roadway segment prior to the repair and layer of asphalt.

The guidance of all of the contractors focused on making these repairs first as the material under the failing surface asphalt will replicate the weakness and hasten the degradation of any surface work.

Whether its rain or snow, water will find the weakness in a roadway and as we found out with culverts. When they are functioning, you take no notice of them, when they are not, you might be surprised with what you find.

Preventive maintenance and being aware of the infrastructure of your community will help you better plan for a functional system. Assuming everything is working can lead to an unfortunate circumstance. In the case of our community, we found Frost Paving to have the solution which suited our needs.

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Tips on road maintenance in a property owner association - The Mountaineer