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guest commentary by Richard Roth

Roads don’t fail suddenly. They deteriorate along a well-understood curve, and there is a window — measurable, predictable, documented — during which relatively cheap preventive treatment keeps a road in service for decades. Miss that window, and the cost of the same road multiplies by 14.

City of Chico reports make the math plain. A road in good condition can be slurry-sealed for $9.80 per square yard. Allow that same road to deteriorate to the point of failure, and the cost becomes $137.07 per square yard for full-depth reclamation or complete dig-out and replacement. That is a 14-to-1 cost multiplier.

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