SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - It's not only expensive to drive your car these days but what you are driving on is getting costly too.
The Utah Department of Transportation is experiencing an asphalt shortage. Several of UDOT's road construction projects have already experienced delays. It is because asphalt is now in competition with gasoline. The material that makes asphalt used to be considered waste left over from refining oil into gas but now the greater demand for gasoline is causing refineries to more efficiently squeeze every possible drop of crude oil into the more profitable fuel.
It means there is not a lot of asphalt to go around. To make matters worse the polymer that binds asphalt together is in short supply because it too is a petroleum byproduct, thus, driving the cost up.
The higher cost and short supply could curb state road construction projects in the future but for now the UDOT's Director of Construction Materials says "the sky is not falling." UDOT has some budget set in reserve for unforeseen costs such as this. He says the top priority will be repairing potholes. So far the majority of delays have happened on Southern Utah projects.
