Hard surfacing will be added to four Warren County roads in 2017.Portions of the roads will be upgraded from gravel to asphalt on a rock base, with additional improvements along the way, county commissioners said.The roads to be improved are:• Lost Creek Road, 2 miles;• Hickory Lick Road, 1.5 miles;• Mark Peterson Drive, 0.3 mile; and• Tuque Creek Road and Joerling Lane, 3 miles.“That’s a big project,” said Southern District Commissioner Hubie Kluesner.“When they do those roads they widen them, put new culverts in. They do everything that’s going to last for the next 15-20 years. It’s a big undertaking.”The last cost assessment of similar road projects puts the price at $164,000 per mile, including the asphalt and all the improvements, Kluesner said.That would add up to $1.1 million for the 2017 projects. The funds for converting gravel roads to asphalt come from county sales tax revenue.Northern District Commissioner Dan Hampson said the cost of road construction is less than in years past.“It’s down from some years ago when the price of oil was up,” Hampson said, estimating past costs to be 20 percent higher than the current price.Asphalt is made with refined oil.All four projects will hopefully be done by early July, Road Department Supervisor Gary Ruether said. Planning for the projects will be wrapped up soon and will go out for bid in a couple of months, he added.The county also has plans to lay new asphalt on a previously paved half mile of Tuque Creek Road, as well as 5 miles of Highway F and Stracks Church Road. Those projects are not funded by the sales tax.Another large chunk of the county’s roads budget is set aside for maintaining the gravel on unpaved roadways. Of about 300 miles of road in the county, commissioners estimated between 225-250 miles are gravel. Unlike asphalt, gravel has been climbing in price, they said.“It depends on the year — this year might not be so bad,” Kluesner said. “So far we haven’t had a hard winter where the ground freezes up with a lot of moisture. When the frost comes out, the ground just gives up. It just gets to be a soup.”There has been $400,000 set aside for any new gravel that needs to be brought in this year. The county spent $353,000 on gravel in 2016.If the Warren County Road Department doesn’t need $400,000 for gravel maintenance, that money likely will roll over into next year’s budget.The road department spent $1.4 million less than budgeted in 2016.Road resurfacing