There's no question that natural gas drilling has brought huge benefits to the North Texas economy.

But it has also brought new concerns about safety on dangerously damaged roads, with no big increase in tax revenue to fix them.

One county official has launched a crusade to get help.

A gas well tanker truck rumbles down a Parker County road. Multiply this times thousands of trips. The roads start to deteriorate and residents complain.

"The anger level is up on it," said Bob Lessner.

Lessner's fury grew as he watched 80,000-pound trucks continually cross an old nearby bridge with a load limit of 10,000 pounds.

"I've called the Sheriff's dept. I called state police on it. The state shut it down for a little while," he said.

Parker County commissioner John Roth is angry too and frustrated. He says these county roads weren't built for such heavy loads. There's not nearly enough money for repairs, even though more gas wells move in all the time.

"Last year we had 59 new wells in precinct three. This year I think it's 70 or 80," he said.

He believes road damage is getting too dangerous. Roth has been logging accidents.

It's not just Parker County. It's also Hood, Johnson, Wise, and many others. Damage is increasing with no increase in money to fix it.

Roth isn't upset with drillers, though. He says they pay for damage around their wells.

And he knows the Barnett Shale has boosted the economy. His complaint is that state tax law gives county governments no way to capture enough revenue to repair the damage.

He's lobbying state lawmakers to change that. It's difficult to say which will be harder: Convincing Austin to give up millions of dollars, or trying to fix these roads.

"It's as close to impossible as it gets," Roth said.

E-mail jdouglas@wfaa.com.