Associated Press

Some North Dakota counties are asking voters this week to approve more money for road and bridge work. County officials point to skyrocketing costs of asphalt and other material, and they say the Legislature will be asked to help, too.

Cavalier County voters will be asked to approve a 10-mill increase to raise $220,000 a year for five years starting in 2009.

"With the inflated costs of rebuilding roads and whatever, we just can't get much done," Cavalier County Commission Chairman Richard Flanders said. "And without that influx of some additional money it's going to be a very, very, very slow process.

"It's up to the voters," he said. "If they want to expedite things a little bit, we're going to need more money."

The ballot proposal would raise taxes on a quarter of land $30. It would end in 2014.

In neighboring Pembina County, voters are being asked to approve a five-mill levy increase, with the money dedicated to a road and bridge fund.

Barnes County voters are not being asked to approve a mill levy boost for roads, but Highway Superintendent Kerry Johnson said the county faces some tough decisions.

Johnson said the price of liquid asphalt used for seal coating has doubled in the past five years to $1.80 per gallon. He said the county seals an average of 30 miles per year, using about 4,200 gallons of liquid asphalt per mile.

"Asphalt prices have gone through the roof. We're not going to be keeping up for much longer, that's for sure," Johnson said Saturday. "We're either going to have to come up with more money or less paving or less maintenance, and that would just accelerate the speed at which the roads deteriorate."

Asphalt is a byproduct of the petroleum refining process. Johnson said he and others were told by refinery officials at a recent conference that until asphalt can compete with diesel fuel in price, the refineries will focus on making fuel.

"It doesn't give you a good feeling of what's to come," he said.

The next Legislature will face requests from around the state to help improve roads, he predicted. Oil development has taken a toll on the roads in the western part of the state.

"Here on our end of the state, we're getting ethanol plants and wind farms," Johnson said. "It's going to have a huge impact on the amount of trucks running on the roads."