There must be cut-backs and short budgets everywhere or it’s been a particularly hard winter. I have been doing a lot of driving recently for work and pleasure, and roads all over the place seem to be a mess.
The I-696 to I-94 exit ramp north of Detroit was some of the worst and most dangerous road I have ever been on at speed. The car in front of me nearly lost-it at 60+mph. I was able to dive for the shoulder where it was slightly smoother, but had I not, it might have been ugly. There was no notice or hazard signs at all.
Roads all over the mid-western U.S. as well as in my home province of Ontario seem to be in particularly bad shape. With governments at all levels broke, where is the money going to come from, to repair all this decaying infrastructure?
The problem here in WI was the deep frost this year. In talking with some contractors they have the frost line almost three feet down. That is deep for SE WI. The roads are all buckled and really bad. I was at the bike shop today and people were coming in with rim damage from all the pot holes. I guess I don’t feel bad now that I haven’t been out yet. I hope the warm spell this week helps out or the riding around here is seriously going to suffer.
Many of the roads here in my part of San Diego are the worst I have ever seen. And we can’t even use rain or frost as an excuse, since we haven’t gotten any.
They’re not too bad if you’re driving a car, but they are very harsh on bicycles, and if you stop paying attention for even a few seconds, you can end up on the ground.
The only places with clean, smooth roads are the ones maintained by the counties, rather than the state.
I went out riding yesterday and the roads were the worst I’ve seen them. There were places I had to cross the yellow just to avoid huge potholes. This is such a hazard for cyclists. What happens when there’s a car coming? I’m not talking small little holes here. There were 2 sewer grates completely missing leaving 3’ x 2’ by 2’ deep holes in the side of the road. The kicker? The worst roads were in a city that if you look it up, is the wealthiest in Ohio and one of the wealthiest in the country. Go figure…
I believe that a contributory factor to the winter’s weather is that a fair amount of road maintenance was deferred last summer and fall - high price of oil meant that asphalt was pretty expensive. My state (Maine) suspended all but the most pressing paving jobs.
It’s not just “this year”. In the midwest roads have been crumbling for the last 10 years. While property taxes, sales taxes etc , which have been specifically for roads have gone skyrocketing the roads continue to deteriorate. Not only that but the roads that are actually getting done are being done at a much lower quality.
We have several roads that are 1-3 years old that are already falling apart. In many cases they are in worse shape than roads that were built 10-15 years ago. One road right near my house was completely done, down to the base, finished last fall. It already has buckles and pot holes forming. The connecting roads that were not done last fall that are significantly older show no “Extra” signs of wear over the winter.
Locally we’ve literally had roads disintegrate. I mean gone, down to the gravel below. I’m not talking some back ally road either but major arteries. In some cases they remained that way for months.
All this started WELL before things got bad in the economy and to me are nothing more than an indicator that we have some other major issues in government and our economy that we haven’t dealt with.
All this started WELL before things got bad in the economy and to me are nothing more than an indicator that we have some other major issues in government and our economy that we haven’t dealt with.
I seem to recall reading something a few years ago that when the major road expansion took place in North America in the late 50’s to the early 70’s, that very little thought was put into the ongoing up-keep and maitnenance costs of those roads. The up-front costs of the construction was all that was considered. In the same article they calculated the infrastructure deficit in North America in $$$ and it was a staggering amount.
I went out riding yesterday and the roads were the worst I’ve seen them. There were places I had to cross the yellow just to avoid huge potholes.
Me too. It was pretty bad, although here in Northern VA the roads are usually pretty good. I am hoping they will soon begin the annual Spring pothole maintenance. In DC, the mayor Adrian Fenty, recently called for a “Pothole Palluhza” to fix the record number of potholes in the city.
The roads in Indianapolis are horrific, but they always have been. This despite high license fees for vehicles.
Our Republican mayor (who I freely admit to voting for) decided to decline an invitation to Washington DC to meet President Obama with other Mayors, where he might have lobbied for infrastructure funds from the stimulus to help us with our infrastructure needs. In addition to the roads, we have a $1billion+ sewer upgrade that is needed to keep raw sewage out of the waterways. The Republican mayor of Carmel, IN, just north of Indianapolis, read the stimulus bill three times, went to Washington for the conference, and apparently has gotten multiple projects funded with those federal dollars.
The Republican mayor of Carmel, IN, just north of Indianapolis, read the stimulus bill three times, went to Washington for the conference, and apparently has gotten multiple projects funded with those federal dollars.
Damned socialist. These programs just perpetuate dependence on the Federal government. Or so I just read…
It does crack me up though when the mayor of a small city of 70,000 has submitted $428 million in shovel ready projects and the mayor of a city of 700,000+ can only come up with $268 million…but I guess it is better than $0
The up-front costs of the construction was all that was considered.
“Long term planning” has never been a strong point of the US government
We run on “Crisis” mode day in day out. The people have gotten used to it and the politicians have gotten used to “Taking advantage of it”. The number of comments I’ve read in the last several months to the tune of “don’t let an opportunity go to waste”, referring to the economic meltdown as an “Opportunity” is gut wrenching.
In the mean time we’ve neglected for years planning for “The basics” and or even funding our promises like, veteran health care, Social security and government pension funds.
All boils down to one thing again, you can’t have everything. But the American people aren’t willing to accept that.
The roads in Indianapolis are horrific, but they always have been. This despite high license fees for vehicles.
Were does IN revenue come from. My Mother and many cousins live in IN and she was telling me what they pay in property taxes and it’s, for intents and purposes, nothing. She’s in the Bloomington area.
How high are vehicles fees, sales taxes, income tax etc?
I realize that that page shows “Shovel ready” projects, what concerns me is that some of them at a glance are ridiculously overpriced.
THIS ONE for instance. 500 Million for solar water heating for “Rural” citizens of Puerto Rico. Nice idea on the surface, except there are only 3.9 million people in ALL of Puerto Rico. Assuming 4 people per household that’s 512$ per house for every house in the country.
ANOTHER ONE from Puerto Rico. 17.5 BILLION dollars for 100 acre Energy efficient industrial zone. That’s 4487$ per person or 175 MILLION per acre…and Puerto Rico is a major industrial center of the world?
Dog parks, golf course yadda yadda yadda. Even the the ones that fall under realistic “infrastructure” seem inflated to me. There’s a bridge on there for 950 million. That’s almost what it cost to build the Golden Gate bridge in adjusted dollars and this one is a replacement and going across the Mississipppi.
Funny, I was going to start a similar thread wondering about the impact of the roads on triathlons this year. Based on the road that I commute in on every day and the lack of maintenance, I am starting to wonder if I can actually ride my bike to work, let alone race on some of the roads in Southern Ontario. The roads in my area (Kitchener/Cambridge Ontario) are seriously disintegrating. I’m sure lots of people are going to be thinking twice about their $$$ racing wheelsets when they decide to go racing on some of these roads.
Although I’m not doing much riding these days I regularly drive many of the roads I cycled on quite often just 4-5 years ago. I’m not sure you could ride on them these days, some of them you can barely drive on.
There appears to be a number of factors including a complete lack of maintenance, an apparent loss of skill on repair and initial construction and out and out lack of funds and planning.
I saw the thread title and my first thuoght was that they were probably talking about Michigan. That state gets hit by so many freeze/thaw cycles that screw up the pavement that it’s hard to keep up with repair even when funding is adequate. The city I grew up in had a person in City Hall whose sole job was to handle insurance claims against the city for vehicle damage caused by potholes.
There’s a bridge on there for 950 million. That’s almost what it cost to build the Golden Gate bridge in adjusted dollars and this one is a replacement and going across the Mississipppi.
I can oddly buy this one if we’re talking a major interstate bridge that has to go over a huge distance of flood plain. If it involves 20 miles of causeway that needs elevation, then, okay it might be legit.
I saw the thread title and my first thuoght was that they were probably talking about Michigan.
All northern states deal with this, but they have been since forever. The roads however in the last 10 years have literally disintergrated.
If I had to guess I’d say 50%+ of the roads in my area alone are so bad that they effectively slow the rate of traffic. I can’t remember a time since I’ve been driving that I have had to concentrate more on dodging holes, cracks, crevices, curb debri etc than I have had to actually driving. For the past 2-3 years I literally am “Driving distracted” because I have to spend most of my concentration on paying attention to “Road hazards” rather than paying attention to traffic and other vehicles.
**I can oddly buy this one if we’re talking a major interstate bridge that has to go over a huge distance of flood plain. If it involves 20 miles of causeway that needs elevation, then, okay it might be legit. **
Oh I don’t doubt that it’s possible, it’s just that I have a hard time believing these numbers when you have a good deal that are just obviously inflated and ridiculous.
In the case of the 950 million dollar bridge it’s basically replacing an existing structure, so although it could include a whole bunch of other work it’s obviously working with out and has since 1935.
Just seems to me that at a time like this we need to figure out ways to keep prices down, not do them “Cheaply”, just do them well but at a bare minimum and concentrate on functionality and utility.
The roads in Indianapolis are horrific, but they always have been. This despite high license fees for vehicles.
Were does IN revenue come from. My Mother and many cousins live in IN and she was telling me what they pay in property taxes and it’s, for intents and purposes, nothing. She’s in the Bloomington area.
How high are vehicles fees, sales taxes, income tax etc?
~Matt
Pretty sure road stuff all comes from license fees and gas tax. It was about $200 to put plates on my new Vibe last fall, it will decrease each year, but not by much. License fee is based on car age and original purchase price. Don’t think it ever gets under $50 or so. Gas tax is $.41/gallon.
Property taxes are by and large low here, but you couldn’t convince anyone who lives here of that. Hoosiers are convinced they have the higest taxes in the country. They’re going to push through a 1% tax cap much like Cali has with Prop 13, the state will be bankrupt in a few years. We’re supposely at 2.5% now and they’re already closing libraries and laying off cops…
Sales tax is 7%, but higher in some localities. Income is flat 3.4% but counties and cities levy on top of that, and again it varies considerably.
