I drive along a stretch of road back and forth to work each day called There are plenty of potholes, but they never get fixed, at least not properly. The public works departments in each of the towns that this road goes through (Chicago, Lincolnwood, Skokie & Evanston) apparently feel that the road isn’t that important to fix or terribly important enough to fix.
Potholes do cause flat tires, potholes bring down property values (well, maybe not) because of these potholes along this road, some drivers I know will personally avoid this road due to the crappiness of it.
What seems to work most of course is asphalt, that hot black mix, a temporary quick fix, that in reality are never checked on once they are planted and of course as most people know, asphalt doesn’t last forever, especially on a frequently-traveled road by cars, vans, 18-wheelers and buses, plus the elements of snow, ice, sleet, rain and hot sun. Combine those probabilities and Whammo! You have endless possible nightmares.
Decades ago, when a road deteriorated, public works departments would use concrete to replace the road. It was top of the line; the best stuff money could buy, even if it was pricey, but not anymore. In fact, asphalt is used as a cheap substitute to patch up all sorts of roads and parking lots for that matter; but even worse, almost every two years, some independent contractor or public works departments will go around their village and tear up good solid roads, only to replace them with shoddy patches of asphalt and will revisit those locations every time, doing more damage and harm to a good foundation of a road than anything else.
Although I realize how much of a waste of time and energy this is, I wonder how many others notice the same thing; I suspect it keeps public works departments in relatively good shape, thereby paying their salaries year-round. My most obvious beef is fixing streets with asphalt, in case you haven’t noticed.
Sure, some will argue that the job of public works departments should be to maintain public thoroughfares & infrastructures within their respective city or village boundaries. I don’t argue with that at all, I just think it’s very wrong to tear up a perfectly good street or road just to do a half-assed job and then keep re-doing it as if it needs repair.
It’s just a damned terrible waste of money and local governments whether they realize it or not, are blowing good chunks of money and the people’s pride. What does the sense in rebuilding and rebuilding on a solid foundation if there’s nothing solid to stand firmly on to begin with?
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