International turmoil affects township road projects

www.gettysburgtimes.com By JOHN MESSEDER - Times Staff Writer

Political turmoil in Venezuela and possible war with Iraq already are having an effect on local road work that will not start for months. Franklin Township Supervisor Chairman Craig Hartley said the planned major projects will be done, but smaller, maintenance projects may be adjusted if oil prices do not come back down.

“If oil is available for road work, we are probably going to see an increase of 25 to 30 cents a gallon,” Hartley said. “that is a lot.”

Hartley, who also is the township’s road master, made the comment at the February supervisors meeting. At the March meeting, the supervisors published their bid requests in a market that is forecasting costs as high as 40 cents a gallon over last year.

The township’s 2003 road budget contains an estimated increase of five cents a gallon over 2002, but he will have to “re-figure once we get the bids,” Hartley said.

Timothy Montague, of York and Reading-based Koch Pavement Solutions, also is secretary/treasurer of the state Association of Asphalt Material Applicators. In a telephone interview Friday afternoon, he noted the increased asphalt prices are “solely an issue of supply.”

Montague explained the type of oil used in asphalt comes largely from Venezuela. At least 60 percent — some estimates are as high as 80 percent — of asphalt used on the United States’ east coast comes from that country.

Middle East oil is lighter, better suited for making gasoline and other fuels.

Political turmoil in Venezuela involving the military and the current government resulted in refinery workers not being paid, so they walked off the job. Montague said many of them went back to work about two weeks ago, but when they left, they simply shut down the plants.

“It’ll take them a year to get (repairs) completely done,” he said, adding the companies also are having “difficulty getting oil in from the fields to the refineries.”

Competition for available asphalt is stiff.

Venezuelan oil is used in materials for asphalt roofs, including tar roofs, asphalt shingles, and impregnated felt, and that season already is in full swing, with construction suppliers “scrambling to get other sources,” Montague said.

Also, the paving season is starting in southern parts of the United States.

“It could be like the oil embargo in 1973,