Study says nation's urban roads deteriorating

[dArKeR]

You may have noticed during your teeth-rattling, coffee-slopping, shock-springing commute: Roads are getting worse.

A study to be released Thursday by The Road Information Program (TRIP), a transportation industry research group, says the condition of major roads in urban areas continues a decline. More than a quarter of roads in major metropolitan areas, 26%, are judged to be in poor condition, up from 22% in 1998 when the decline began, the group says.

The latest figure, from Federal Highway Administration data collected in 2003, is up 1 percentage point from the previous year. TRIP, a non-profit group funded by highway equipment manufacturing, engineering and construction industries, is trying to influence how much funding Congress allots to transportation.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20050526/ts_usatoday/studysaysnationsurbanroadsdeteriorating

I've been reporting this on the DU for 2 years. Such a disgraceful lot of pigs the Repukes are! It's not just Urban Roads, it's ALL roads, curbs, sidewalks, parks, and public buildings. The new town I'm in, OR, you just wouldn't believe!

Proof of my reporting this is here, two years ago in San Jose CA. But I had reported this on returning to America that from the time I touched down that EVERY PLACE I visited was run down with NO CREWS out repairing. Hawaii is a junk yard. CA is a slum. NV is a pit. OR is wasted. WA is a dump. GOD BLESS REPUBLICAN supporting Brain Dead FOOLS!

Is there really a plan by Satan to destroy America and the Bush Family, Delay, Frist, Hastert, Wolfowitz, Bolton, Perle, Limbaugh, Hanitiy, O'Reily... are the agents of Satan?

http://darkerxdarker.tripod.com/thebushlegacy.htm

In this pic, the water cannot even flow to the storm drain. Water sits there and bacteria forms along with insects.

[ananda]

1. who does it benefit/

Because of poor roads, cars need more gas, more repairs.. and they have a shorter life, meaning..

.. that some people are making a lotta money off poor roads.

Sue

[dArKeR]

23. Above pic is San Jose CA. The 'rich' neighborhood. My current OR

neighborhood is a hundred times worse! See if I can get some pics.

[BrainRants]

2. Since 1998? That's Clinton's fault of course!

:sarcasm:

[MADem]

3. One thing I have noticed

...is that the cable and telcom companies often come in and dig up a newly paved road to put their crap in, and then do a shitty patch job. That kept happening again and again along Georgia Ave in front of Walter Reed...it got to the point of absurdity.

[rockedthevoteinMA]

4. I know all about it. I had to replace my tires (all four two weeks apart)

because of potholes in my area.

Maybe this is their way of not dealing with peak oil. Just let all of our cars get trashed? :tinfoilhat:

[mbperrin]

5. Well, here's one side effect of spending money for something

you don't get. In Odessa, one year ago, a major street was rebuilt for around $3 million. When finished, it looked like crap. This year (yes, one year later!), the SAME company is being paid $2 million to do it again to the same stretch of road!

The favored company? Long-time Repubs, of course, and even though one of the owners spent several years in prison during the 90's for bid-rigging, here they are again, going full blast in Rick Perry's Texas!

[cap]

6. there's different ways to fix a road...

one is a patch job with low cost, low grade material and the other is the right way (digging up the road and (I'm not sure of the terminology), putting up a new foundation, and releveling and paving with high grade material). 1st job is quick and cheap and you end up redoing it in 2 years. 2nd will last. It's a question of priorities.

[BiggJawn]

8. Money, too.

That second method runs into the "Millions per Mile" catagory. "Cold patch" costs something like $50 a pothole to use.

Hard to shave it down and put 4" of new pavement on top when you got a bunch of yahoos that campaigned for election on a "Gwinna give ya back more yer own MONEY!" platform...

[BiggJawn]

7. We discuss this in the Cycling world...

Not the politcal ramnifications, of course, but rough roads are a BIG topic of discussion. Rough pavement is tiring to ride on, it wears out hubs, spokes, handlebars, blows tyres, cracks forks and frames...

In the 40's a new tyre size emerged in France called "650B", which was a large, 26-odd-inch fat tyre. Sort of like Balloon tyres. It became very popular as a foil against the horribly rough post-war roads in Europe.

It has come back from the brink of oblivion to enjoy new interest in THIS country as road departments rely more and more on deferred maintenance and "Chippenseal" to repair crumbling county and state roads.

[Massachusetts]

9. Typical Boston pothole...good for the front end and Firestones

[rockedthevoteinMA]

10. Yup. They get worse on the North Shore. There's a sewer grate

on the on ramp to Route 1, that has a pothole that's about a foot deep. What did they do to repair it? Put a cone in it, that has now been knocked over.

[d.l.Green]

11. Funny, just discussed this last night about our city. Our local Dem

committee was screening candidates for city council and this was a major issue. We have the longest stretch of brick road in the US but it hasn't been maintained for 50 years. Even the most pragmatic of our residents, even those who aren't too keen on our historic district regulations, are interested in raising the huge money needed to restore it as brick.

Roads are expensive to maintain, and most are paved with materials that need repair or replacing after a few short years. Brick and cobblestone may not be ideal- or practical- to drive or bicycle on but they far outlast polluting asphalt. In NYC there are plenty of examples- there are streets where the asphalt has peeled away where you see that brick is actually the base.

[mcscajun]

12. The Suburban roads and the Interstates are in no better shape.

The Republicans have let our infrastructure crumble far and wide.

[dArKeR]

13. I5 costs the users an extra $10 billion per year because of the

rough/chewed/sharp surface chewing up car/truck tires. Extra gas used to propell vehicles on the rough surface. Extra mainenance wear on the shocks and engine. Replacement of cracked windshields and headlights.

Your general masses of Repukes can't really be this stupid? It's got to be massive voter fraud accounting for at least 20% of the Repukes votes! I can understand the top 1% of American WHORES voting Repuke because of their total immorality and greed but not counting the filthy rich only a brain dead person would vote Repuke!

[Auntie Bush]

14. You forgot to count all the ones that think bush* is God and will

protect us from evil. Evil is as evil does!

[Erika]

15. We got $ to fix Iraqi roads but not our own? n/t

[The_Casual_Observer]

16. Republican answer to this is to push it down to the states. counties

and cities, where there is no possibility of ever fixing it, since voters rarely approve tax increases for anything.

[kineneb]

17. failing infrastructure-symbolic of failing empire

When the empire spends more money on making foreign wars than it spends on internal infrastructure, it is only time before it collapses from within. See Rome.

[barb162]

20. yes our entire infrastructure has been falling apart for yrs.

[burrowowl]

21. Yes

So went Rome, so goes the U$, only faster.

[MisterP]

18. is it because Ahnuld is having holes dug in them for photo-ops?

[porkrind]

19. Maybe it's all those heavy WalMart trucks

destroying our roads to bring us more plastic crap?

[dArKeR]

22. One doesn't need a study to know this is going on. Especially journalist

who job is to be observant and investigative by nature. Right? Any and every person can see this for themselves. Why does it take a BIG study for something like this to become news? Was this information suppressed like all the other facts the aWol Adm. didn't want the citizens to know?

[lovuian]

24. I think Iraq has better roads than us!!!

Our roads deteriorate and Iraq's get new ones!!!

[Robb]

25. Cry me a freakin' river...

...you should see the rural roads I'm on every day. :eyes: