This year's blizzards and floods have caused Dane County to delay $690,000 in highway projects until next year, county officials said.

"This is not routine," Dane County Public Works Director Jerry Mandli said. "We hope these types of severe events will not be the norm."

Sup. Cynda Solberg, of Cottage Grove, whose County Board district includes two of the deferred projects, said the roads are in rough shape and the county needs to weigh its priorities when considering next year's budget.

"We spend a lot of money to buy swampland," Solberg said, referring to expenditures to preserve open space. "We need to look at spending that money on infrastructure. If we have another bad winter, it's just going to snowball."

The cutback in highway spending has been the trend across the state in recent years, said Kevin Traas, spokesman for the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association.

The number of private sector road construction jobs in Wisconsin from July to September, the peak construction season, has dropped from 7,774 in 2000 to 6,138 in 2007. The number dipped from 6,769 in 2006, a drop of 9.3 percent.

"We've seen companies go out of business," Traas said.

Projects delayed

Three Dane County projects -- Highway A between Albion Road and Tower Road in the towns of Dunkirk and Albion; Highway BN between Highway 12 and Koshkonong Road in the towns of Cottage Grove and Pleasant Springs; and Highway MN between Williams Drive and Highway AB in the town of Pleasant Springs -- were included in this year's highway construction budget but are now being pushed back.

A fourth project -- Highway AB between the Yahara River bridge and Highway MN in the town of Dunn -- was identified by highway staff in the spring as needing to be repaired, but also was pushed back.

The $690,000 includes $450,000 in county property tax dollars that were used to fix potholes and make other repairs on Fish Hatchery Road, University Avenue, Highway 51 and Highway 18-151. The remaining $240,000 was to come from local village and town contributions.

The road repairs were necessary after record snowfall last winter and spring flooding, Mandli said. Another factor in the decision to delay the projects was fluctuations in the price of asphalt.

"The cost of asphalt has gone up about 80 percent over the summer," Mandli said. "By delaying this we're hoping there will be some stability in that pricing."

Mandli proposed funding three of the projects last year with borrowed funds, but Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and the County Board agreed to fund the projects as part of the highway department's $5.8 million road maintenance budget.

All four delayed projects are included in Mandli's 2009 capital budget request, which includes borrowing $3 million for road projects, up from $2.8 million in 2008. Mandli has requested $6.5 million for road maintenance in 2009. Falk's budget is due to the County Board by Oct. 1.