by Stephanie Croston

    It's true that the Cordova paving project has been on the one- and six-year road improvement plan for years.
     But the road will be paved, Russ Daehling, Seward County highway superintendent, said, adding that the road has been in the one-year plan for two years.
     The county road department has already done the engineering, purchased the right-of-way, moved the utilities, mitigated a wetland and done a lot of the preparation work on the road.
     "We wanted to show our commitment," Daehling said.
     The county will use Surface Transportation Program (STP) funds to pay for the road. However, the county's share of the state's STP funds was depleted to pay for paving the road south of Southeast Communtiy College. At that time, Daehling said, the county was told it would be 2006 before it could start saving again for another project.
     Roads to be paved using STP funds were put on the county's plan based on average daily traffic (ADT) counts, which are updated every two years. The county has between 60 and 65 miles of other arterial roads eligible for STP funds, based on the ADT.
     In STP funding, the county pays 20 percent of the project, while the state of Nebraska pays the other 80 percent.
     Goehner south, Staplehurst and Pleasant Dale north actually have higher traffic counts than the Cordova road, Daehling said.
     Cordova replaced Goehner in the paving program in 1992.
     The earliest the road could be paved is 2009 if the county increased its funding share to 50 percent or approximately $600,000. The county's annual road contract budget is just $250,000, Daehling said. With the county contributing 20 percent, the paving will happen around 2011.
     "They will get a great road in the same timeframe," Minchow said. "We build good solid roads that last for a long time."
     The county has been setting money aside to help complete its match on the project. Daehling said the goal is to have $400,000 saved by the time the road is paved. Currently, the sinking fund has $265,000 in it.
     Before former Rep. Doug Bereuter left his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, he put the Cordova road in the federal highway program. Commissioner Ron Minchow said that was unusual because most projects earmarked in that program are in and around cities.
     "It's very unusual," Daehling said, adding that Bereuter did not include the state department of roads in his decision.
     The bill was not signed by the president before the session ended at Christmas, which meant it had to be redone.
     "It was a six-year bill. Even if it had gone the way we wanted, it could've been the end of the cycle," Daehling said.
     Because the federal bill had to be redone, the priorities went back to their normal procedures, Minchow said.
     Minchow said the county's priorities are based on traffic counts and the road's destination or what it connects.
     The county takes advantage of paving opportunities, he said, citing Matzke Highway as an example. When the state of Nebraska Department of Roads decided to use Matzke as a bypass during its Interstate 80 construction, the road had to be improved.
     "We got $1.5 million of work for nothing," Minchow said. "It was the right thing to do for safety."