- Why so much turnover in mayor's office?
- Hearing on the Ruby Hill towers
- Let freedom ring
- Promoting socialized medicine
- Immigration Laws or Lack Thereof
- Atheist Diversionary Tactics
- The "Melting Pot" is unique to America
- Many mighty hearts covering the world
- Roan Drilling Bad for Colorado, country
- Americans entitled to universal health care
Spring pothole season could be worst ever
This Speakout has not been edited
By Tom Peterson, executive director, Colorado Asphalt Pavement Association
The harsh winter of 2006-2007 is giving way to a beautiful spring throughout Colorado. However, the evidence of the winter weather is very noticeable – especially the out cropping of potholes in parking lots, city streets, and state highways. The prolonged standing moisture of the winter storms this past December and January and subsequent freeze thaw action have greatly accelerated damage to our pavements. It is not uncommon for some pavements to be seemingly okay one day and a candidate for the “Pothole of the Week” the next. The bad news is that many authorities – facing the squeeze of increased costs and shrinking budgets - have chosen to defer maintenance and have started down a spiraling path of deteriorating infrastructure and increasingly costly backlogs of required repairs. The combination of traffic and water are the primary causes of the pothole problem. Water erodes the base or underlying material making the pavement unable to withstand the weight of the traffic. The more water and the higher the traffic levels the sooner the problem. Most authorities have a very sophisticated approach to managing road improvement dollars and recognize the benefit of keeping “the good roads good.” However, with inadequate funding, it is difficult to use the right repair strategy at the right time and authorities are forced more into a worst-first approach and reacting to the biggest problems –which tend to be the biggest potholes. Pavements checkered with potholes are typically worn out, beat up, old pavements that need to be rebuilt from the bottom up. Unfortunately, the costs to rebuild a pavement are much higher than resurfacing or keeping a good road in good condition. Most authorities, including CDOT, have found that the cost to rebuild a pavement in poor condition is 5 to 10 times the cost to maintain a good road in good condition. As we enter the heart of pothole breeding season and this year could be one of the worst on record, it is easy to point fingers and question the materials used, the quality of construction, or the pothole repair practices of maintenance forces. However, we cannot over look the fact that a primary cause of the pothole problem is a lack of funding. This prevents an aggressive preventive maintenance program in which authorities can use a “good roads cost less” approach and where the maintenance forces are not forced to respond to the latest citing of the pothole crater publicized in the newspaper or discussed on talk radio.