Damage to roads and road infrastructure associated with the 2020 North Complex Fire in Butte County is estimated at $75 million, said Public Works Director Joshua Pack, who spoke Saturday at a community meeting in Berry Creek, which was devastated by the fire.
County officials say one challenge to paying for needed repairs is navigating “increasingly difficult” state and federal reimbursement processes as disasters pile up in California and across the country.
Pack said so far, the county has come to an agreement on about $26 million.
“Working with our partners, we struggle — much like a lot of you do — getting them to agree on what’s repairable and what’s not,” he said.
Disaster-recovery work, such as hauling away fire debris with oversized vehicles, can lead to significant damage to infrastructure maintained by local jurisdictions.
The public works director said county officials have identified about $170 million in damages to county roads and road infrastructure associated with storms and fires over about the last five years, including the 2018 Camp Fire.
Pack said he’s been in the public works field since the late ’90s and had not been through a disaster until around 2015.
“Since that time, unfortunately, I’ve been through 12 declared disasters,” he said. “That is a fundamental shift in the way we do business.”
Typically, Pack said, the county, which maintains about 1,300 miles of roadways, has a budget of about $7 million for road repairs.
