| Helping
a WV Homeowners Association Improve Their Road & Drainage System
In 1993, the Steamboat
Run Community Association contacted the LTAP Center and asked for assistance in
evaluating their roads. They wanted the Center's help to develop a long-term road
improvement plan. The
Center conducted a one-day site visit and examined the four miles of roadway -
three miles gravel; one mile tar-and-chip. We then provided recommendations and
technical information, including When to Pave a Gravel Road and The
Basics of a Good Road. Five years later, in 1998, the Association's road committee
contacted us again, saying, "The homeowners are asking if the Association
has had our new road improvement plans reviewed by the LTAP Center before we spend
all this money." We conducted another site visit and reviewed the plans.
We were delighted to see the attention paid to drainage concerns!
With our OK, the road
committee gained the confidence of the community, and they now have 1.2 miles
of beautiful eighteen-foot wide, well-drained asphalt road. Plans are underway
to extend the paving, and the power company is in the process of moving six power
poles (for free!) to allow road excavation to extend to eighteen feet plus drainage
ditches. | 
