CAPITAL REGION — The high cost of petroleum-based materials used to construct roads will mean fewer highway projects in the region this summer, according to public works officials.

Ballston Highway Superintendent Joseph Whalen said he doesn’t have the equipment to do major road projects, so he contracts with private companies to rebuild and resurface the 45 miles of road in his town.

This year, he had four roads that were to be either completely replaced or resurfaced, but he’s not sure he’ll have the funds to get them all done.

“I’ve told my contractor to get as much done as possible by June 2 because that’s when the new asphalt prices hit,” Whalen said.

Ballston buys its liquid asphalt and binder mix for road construction on the state contract, which has bulk purchase power and the lowest price in New York, he said.

“Liquid asphalt was $326 a ton in March and $424 a ton in May. We have no idea what the price will be in June,” Whalen said. “Liquid asphalt is used to make the blacktop for roads. The base binder is what goes under the blacktop, and that increased from $41.42 a ton in March to $48.48 in May.”

Put into context, the first town road project of the year was the resurfacing of a little more than a mile of Devils Lane.

The expected cost of the project was $88,274 but the final cost was $101,688.

“We sign a contract based on materials and labor with an asphalt cost adjustment that is calculated when the job begins to cover the change in the price of asphalt,” he said.

The town contracted to have Devils Lane topped and Randall Road, Jenkins Road and Westside Drive completely torn up and reconstructed.

Whalen said Devils Lane and Jenkins Road are done and Westside Drive was partly done as of Friday.

“I don’t know if there will be money to do Randall Road this year,” Whalen said. “We’ve gone backwards the last two years. We have budget increases but we can’t complete all the projects I’d like to because of the fuel costs.”

The story is the same all over.

Schenectady County’s director of Public Works Joseph Ryan said he’ll be evaluating projects closely through the summer.

“We lay our road program out 10 years and then fine tune it each year,” he said. “One or two will probably drop off the bottom this year because of the escalating costs of products.”

He said the state Legislature increased Consolidated Highway Improvement Program (CHIPs) funding this year by 17 percent and that amounts to about $200,000 for Schenectady County.

“A lot of us made the effort to talk with our legislators about ramping up the funding,” Ryan said.

“Two years ago we got hit with steel doubling in price and last year salt and ice contracts about doubled. All these increases spell trouble.”

He said his budget for road work, which includes snow removal, is about $7 million. Approximately $1 million of that is spent on contracts for road and bridge repairs.

“Something will have to drop off the list [of road repairs] as we look at the ratings for each job. The projects we feel are less important will either get some preventative work or nothing,” Ryan said.

Saratoga County Public Works Commissioner Joseph Ritchey said he’ll keep his annual schedule of improving 20 miles of county roads this year, but the jobs won’t necessarily be done with as much detail as he would like.

“We’re not looking to cut back but we are tweaking some of the projects with the method of construction,” Ritchey said. “Rather than doing reconstruction to the full depth, we will be doing either an overlay or thinning the thickness of the road replacement.”

He said most of the road work is done by county crews, but he often contracts for bridge and some other projects.

“I’m looking at a couple of bridge projects that may be done in-house this year rather than go out to bid,” he said. “We did get an additional $300,000 in CHIPs funding, which is helping.”

Even the state Department of Transportation is giving a close look at its road work this year.

Spokesman Peter VanKeuren said large road projects that have signed contracts will be completed as designed.

“Construction projects over the next few years have an inflation factor in them to try to reflect expected increases in material costs,” he said.

“Due to this and other factors, such as available funding, schedules amongst different projects are often moved around.”

He said maintenance projects such as pothole repair, guide rail replacement, litter pick-up and drain cleaning are usually handled by DOT personnel.

“Due to increased material costs, we will have to take a close look at the expected paving to be done this year and see if any revisions need to be made,” he said.