Department: County Engineer
Department Head/Elected Official: Milton Rahman, PhD, P.E., PMP, CFM, ENV SP, County Engineer
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Policy
Project ID (if applicable): N/A
Vendor/Entity Legal Name (if applicable): N/A
MWDBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): N/A
MWDBE Current Participation (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% MWDBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
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Request for discussion and action regarding Orphan Road Program.
end
Background and Discussion:
An orphan road is a roadway that no legal entity is responsible for maintenance and the burden falls on individual homeowners. In most cases, there is no formal Homeowners Association (HOA) in those areas. The County has no legal authority to allocate county funds to these roads even if they are in dire need of repair or maintenance.
Harris County is responsible for the maintenance of roads, where the road rights of way are dedicated to Harris County, the road is built per county standard, inspected by the Office of the County Engineer (OCE) accepted for ownership by the Precincts, and officially added by Commissioners Court to the County Road Log. In addition, Harris County has maintenance agreements with other government entities for the County to maintain and operate roadways owned by other entities. For private subdivisions, typically HOAs, management districts or municipal utility districts (MUDs) are responsible for the maintenance and operations of the roadways. In many cases, orphan roads are created when a developer becomes insolvent, and the roads were not turned over to County and the burden of maintenance falls to the individual homeowners and can result in potential mobility and public safety issues for the community.
Orphan roads can be broadly classified into two categories:
• Category 1: Dedicated Harris County public rights of way but streets have not been preconstructed to comply with Harris County standards and regulations and therefore, were not accepted by Harris County
• Category 2: Private roads with no legal entity responsible for maintenance
According to our preliminary estimates, unincorporated Harris County has over 500 miles of orphan roads.
The following are general issues related to orphan roads:
• No entity is responsible or authorized to repair the road if it needs repair. Continued lack of
maintenance and disrepair could lead to mobility and public safety issues.
• Degraded and neglected roads can have a detrimental impact on real estate values, tax revenues, and
economic development.
• The expense of repairing roads to acceptable standards will rise with time as deferred maintenance.
costs compound, often necessitating potentially partial or full reconstruction.
• Equity issues due to orphan roads located near lower income and minority neighborhoods.
To address the above issues, the OCE is proposing a policy to create a program for identifying, acquiring, and maintaining orphan roads in unincorporated Harris County. Any eligible source of funds can be allocated to the Orphan Road Program by the Commissioners Court. The attached Orphan Road Program Policy includes purpose, roles and responsibilities, project evaluation criteria, adoption, and maintenance processes.
Recommended Action:
Approve attached Orphan Road Program to be funded by any eligible funding sources.
Expected Impact:
The establishment of the Orphan Road Program will promote mobility, safety, and quality of life of the public and the economic and social development of the County. The program will better serve all the residents of Harris County and will correct major systemic equity issues in infrastructure and mobility - namely by remediating substandard roads and infrastructure for adoption to the County Road Log for maintenance and operations.
Alternative Options:
An alternate option could be to convert private neighborhood roads to public roads and assess the costs of the improvements against the property owners as allowed per Chapter 253 of the Transportation Code. Another alternate option can be to continue with the current process and pursue grant funding when available.
Alignment with Goal(s):
X Justice and Safety
X Economic Opportunity
_ Housing
_ Public Health
X Transportation
X Flooding
_ Environment
X Governance and Customer Service
Prior Court Action (if any):
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Date |
Agenda Item # |
Action Taken |
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6/6/23 |
340 |
Request by the Office of the County Engineer for discussion and action to create a program for repair, improvement, maintenance, and operations of orphan roads. Approval included analyze the current state of Orphan Roads through a condition assessment and request funding if needed. Approval to use mobility funds to be distributed for this year can be allocated to work on Orphan Roads at the discretion of Precinct. |
Location:
Address (if applicable): N/A
Precinct(s): Countywide
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Anticipated Court Date: December 10, 2024
Anticipated Implementation Date (if different from Court date): N/A
Emergency/Disaster Recovery Note: Not an emergency, disaster, or COVID-19 related item
Contact(s) name, title, department: Erwin Burden, PE, Senior Director of Capital Project Infrastructure, Harris County Engineering Department; Corey D. Ritter, CET, Manager of Construction Materials Testing
Attachments (if applicable): OCE Orphan Road Program