"We have a very aggressive pavement preservation program," Easton said. "We spend close to 40 million dollars a year preserving what we have because we've learned over time that paying now, in small amounts of money, is a lot cheaper than paying millions of dollars to completely rebuild roads later."

That philosophy has been embraced by state road departments across the country in the last decade or so, Easton said, albeit to different degrees among the states.

"Plus, states like California have so many more miles of roads — there's so many needs there and only so much they can do with the (funds) they have," Easton said. "We have a lot of roads, but we have a fraction of the roads compared to a state like that."

Technology also has helped Utah and other states keep up with declining road conditions. UDOT has a specially equipped van that uses a laser beam on roadways to determine the exact condition of the pavement, making detection of deteriorating roads more of an exact science.

Easton said the 2 percent of Salt Lake-area roads that scored poorly in the report, and all 6 percent of roads in bad shape statewide, are on schedule to be repaired in the near future.

"Certainly, having zero in poor condition would be ideal," Easton said. "Six percent isn't that bad, but I'm sure it's bad for the people who are driving on the roads that need attention. But we're getting to those as quickly as we can."

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E-mail: zman@desnews.com

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