Every year the County Administrator’s Office presents a 5-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to the County Board of Supervisors that serves as a strategic plan for capital purchases and educates the County Board about the immediate and long-term capital needs of County departments. Projects must cost a minimum of $50,000 or more to be considered eligible. This document is not a capital budget and does not guarantee funding.

Presentation of the CIP in June-July provides the County Board of Supervisors more notice of projects and helps differentiate it from the operating budget process.

Most projects are proposed to be funded with sales tax or other dedicated funding sources. Larger projects such as buildings, building improvements or roads may be funded by bonding/debt financing.

The County’s portion of Public Works Department bridge and highway construction projects is typically funded through long-term financing as these are large expenses that cannot be absorbed in a single year and the roads are projected to last beyond the typical 10- 15-year debt repayment period. Public Works equipment is purchased with cash in the cost pool and depreciated over the typical life of the piece of equipment. This allows expenses to be charged back to capital highway construction projects or maintenance activities.

The Public Works Department summaries provide more detail about bridge, highway construction, and equipment purchases. Along with the typical location, planned construction/purchase year, and cost information, priority level and objective industry measures such as Sufficiency Rating (0-100 rating considering structural factors noted during a bridge inspection, a bridge’s geometry and the amount of traffic the bridge handles) and Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) (1-10 rating, 1 – extremely poor, 10 – new construction) have been included to quantify the condition of the bridge or road.

There are 19 new projects that were not present in the prior year’s Capital Improvement Plan. They can be identified by examining the Project Number. The first number signifies the year the project entered the CIP (those with a “25” are new in 2025) and the second number represents the order in which it appears.

Prior to the project pages is an analysis section with charts and tables that summarize various aspects of the projects in the CIP. Along with the tables and charts is a brief written explanation of the data presented.