The King County Department of Transportation, citing “plummeting tax revenue and tight budgets,” recently announced only seven miles of roads in all of unincorporated King County will get repaved this summer, and none in North Highline made the list.

A few stretches of road near Redmond, Federal Way, Auburn and Issaquah did make the list “thanks to federal grants; otherwise, the county would not be able to repave any roads this summer,” according to a press release.

In comparison, KCDOT said they repaved 43 miles of road during the summer paving program of 2010.

“We are doing the paving we can, thanks to a pilot federal grant program for preservation of roads,” Road Services Director Brenda Bauer said in a press release. “We hope that this kind of grant funding might continue, but that is uncertain. Without repaving of the surface, county roads will continue to weaken and deteriorate to the point of needing costly and serious reconstruction.”

The county said roads chosen for repaving were considered the busiest in need of work, “but there are still hundreds of other miles of roads the county lacks sufficient funding to address.”

In a recent speech to the White Center Chamber of Commerce, King County Executive Dow Constantine said the county is regaining financial stability after the economic meltdown of 2008, but still lags behind the recovering private sector by a few years. He said as more funds become available county infrastructure (including roads) will be a top priority.