Potholes damage cars, frustrate drivers

I-295 and I-64 are a disgrace. I’ve driven interstates to Illinois and California, and it never ceases to amaze me how terrible the interstates around Richmond are in comparison.

I-295 and I-64 should have been completely repaved YEARS ago, when this state had a huge budget SURPLUS and legislators argued about what to do with it. But no… they continued to patch and re-patch these roads. Now the patches are mainly responsible for these gaping pot holes. Tax payers will waste more money for more patches (AND to repair their damaged cars), and we’ll still end up with interstates that need repaving—ultimately costing us more than if we’d done it 10 years ago.

Posted by Yodasghost on February 09, 2010 at 11:13 pm
You complain about the long wait during the paving operations -it used to be done at night on high traffic roads -but contractors charge more to pave at night, so the night-time paving specification was eliminated from contracts - to save money.

The paving I’m talking about (I-95 and I-295) was all done at night. 

Otherwise, you missed my point.  I’m asking why smooth roads were repaved WHILE HORRIBLE ROADS ARE NOT!  Clear now??

J-Reb wrote: Fine, then will someone tell me why three smooth-as-silk roads in my immediate vicinity were repaved again last year?

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You are referring to high traffic count roads, and just because they “ride” smooth in your vehicle doesn’t mean they are not in bad shape. Many of the roads people are now screaming about the potholes on were also probably “smooth-as-silk” too before the freezing and thawing, broke out in potholes -which a road in good condition doesn’t do.

Those “smooth-as-silk” roads were cracked and broken, which in most cars made in the last 20 years, due to radial tires, and gas suspension, you can’t feel, were at the end of the asphalts life. Yet you never noticed. Get out of your car and LOOK at the pavement! See the cracks! See the damage you miss as you wizz down the road!

When I was in construction, paving roads, Always, ALWAYS, there would be some “citizen” who would stop to complain that this road didn’t need paving.

What? We should wait until the road is rutted? The potholes interconnected?
The time to fix a road is BEFORE the potholes appear -BEFORE the cracks appear - BEFORE the asphalt dies. It becomes very expensive to maintain a road after its surface and base structure have been damaged.

Your “smooth-as-silk” roads would not have been paved unless the need was there. And you were really lucky that there were no major signs that the re-paving was necessary - otherwise you might be paying six or seven hundred dollars in repair bills.

You complain about the long wait during the paving operations -it used to be done at night on high traffic roads -but contractors charge more to pave at night, so the night-time paving specification was eliminated from contracts - to save money.

The I-64 and 295 corridor weren’t paved in time. Now you see the end result. There is only a VERY limited amount of funding and roads that receive the most complaints, roads where the sub-structure will be damaged if resurfacing is not done, and roads that have a high political backing will always get the lions share of attention.

Simply get out of your vehicle and look at the road surface -all those cracks, and all those patches, regardless of how the road rides are your warning signs that the end is near - just like the symptoms your body gives to let you know something is wrong.

And VDOT is doing triage, trying to save what they can and pretty much abandoning the rest.

Oooh, I forgot to add, I believe that potholes are funded by the International Brotherhood of Wheel-Alignment Technicians ;)

“ I think the government should pay for the repair of the people�s car”...

Spoken like a true socialist.  The Government does not do things you do not pay for…get it?

So when VDOT is out of money due to lack of funding, due to lack of public support and lack of public pressure on your congressman/woman and representatives,  ...there is nothing they can do.  Stop complaining here, call your Senator and Rep. and call them top action for you.  Don’t sit back and say you should be paid when you hit a pot hole on a road that has no public funding to support its maintenance..