In an effort to receive state funding to repair several county roads, the Dallas County Commission is working to reclassify County Roads 39, 222 and 37 as major collectors, rather than minor.

Dallas County Probate Judge Kim Ballard explained the county only receives federal and state funding for roads classified as major collectors, which means they connect two major highways. However, several county roads in commissioner Roy Moore’s district — District 2 — are in need of repair, and the commission doesn’t have nearly enough money to support the projects through its general fund budget.

“What we’ve done is put counters on all the roads mentioned to try and get them reclassified as major collectors, rather than minor collectors,” Ballard said. “If we’re successful in this reclassification, it will put us in a position where we can apply for grant dollars and get these roads worked on.”

Although these roads aren’t in terrible condition, Ballard said most of them haven’t been paved in more than 25 years. Also, road projects tend to reach in the $1 million range — a sum of money the commission simply doesn’t have.

“Currently, anything we would want to do with them would have to come out of the general fund money and that’s a very expensive process, paving roads,” Ballard said. “We would repair any one of them if we had the money.”

Ballard referenced recent repairs made to Dallas County Road 16, and its budget, which climbed in the $1 million range. If more county roads were to be classified as major collectors, more roads could be repaired, he said.

“This just sets them up for a better position,” he said.