Court lacks power over road repair

PROVO — Just because truckers say a town's road is crumbling away doesn't mean a court can order that town to start patching and paving.

So said 4th District Judge Anthony Schofield, who agreed with attorneys for the town of Fairfield that they can't be forced by a judicial entity to upgrade a right of way.

"I do not have authority to compel the town to make repairs or to allow the plaintiffs to make repairs to the road," wrote Schofield in a ruling filed Friday. "Such an order clearly would exceed the limits of this court's judicial power."

The big controversy over the little road — 1600 North off of state Road 73 — began when Fairfield, west of Utah Lake, instigated a weight limit to stop heavy trucks from damaging what they say is an already weakened road.

But several business owners — including a mink, hog and turf farmer, as well as a crop farmer — use that road to get from their homes in Eagle Mountain to their businesses.

And rather than take out-of-the-way alternate routes, the men offered to fix the road, which is made of packed-down tar and rocks known as "chip seal." They are even offering to hire the same company the town uses for road repairs, Rust said.

Officials in the town turned them down, however, saying they wanted a stronger asphalt road, said Richard Allen, attorney for the town of Fairfield.

"The (town) has made it clear that they don't want the roads just chip-sealed again," Allen said. "The engineer's recommendations ... were for a good road base. (Currently) there's no structure there, when it gets wet, the road will fail anyway."

There aren't any paved roads in Fairfield, thus making the request, which could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, outrageous, Rust said. No plans are in the works to pave the controversial road.

Schofield's ruling ends the discussion about forcing the town to improve the road, either through business owners or on its own, because the judge said state code doesn't give him the right to make such a mandate.

"He's saying, 'It's not whether I like or dislike one side, it's what I think I can or cannot do as a judge,"' Rust said of the ruling.

It's a small loss for the business owners, but Schofield will hear the case again in a bench trial beginning April 16, Rust said.

The issue left before him is the validity of the town's weight ordinance.

The town argues it needs the weight limit to protect the road from weakening, which is compounded by climatic conditions, then exacerbated by heavy vehicles.

However, either way, the truckers are being prevented from traveling on the road.

"The biggest problem is if you have a road that (doesn't) have a weight limitation but it's not drivable by anybody, it has much the same effect," Rust said. "In that sense, it becomes a victory for the city."

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