The Road to Ruin
Weisberg, Lyle Crowley and Jacob
THE ROAD TO RUIN A dispatch from the front lines In one city’s losing war against potholes. by Lyle Crowley and Jacob Weltberg Driving, we’ve been told, used to be a lot moPe fun. To find out...
...Let’s hope that in the years ahead, the streets it shows will still be around...
...None...
...The theory is that you can’t find time to do it right, but youcan find time to do it over,” says Jerry Donaldson of Ralph Nader’s Center for Auto Safety...
...In all the articles in The Washington Post’s lengthy file on Schneider, the paper never once stopped to consider that by deferring maintenance, Schneider was laying the basis for a true street crisis...
...Personally, it causes chipped teeth, steering wheels in the gut, $300 auto repairs, and sundry other side effects as a result of just traveling from one place to another...
...We’ve spent more than a million dollars on this in the last few months,” Barry told one of our editors while campaigning at a local watering hole knownas the Tune Inn...
...At the same time the department continued to protect its supervisors at headquarters and give them automatic annual raises...
...Caution: I Brake for Potholes...
...A dedicated engineer named Ted Lindahl graciously offered us a ride in the Mays...
...In Washington this task is handled byjackhammers, which is a bit like trying to dig a Metro subway tunnel with nuclear explosives...
...Scrimping on preventive maintenance is not unique to Washington...
...One question remained, however...
...Why is the city repairingthepotholesso they won’tstayfilled much beyond the upcoming mayoral election‘!’ “The important thing is to get some material in there to keep the liability down,” Mr...
...It made us wonder about the condition of the street that was listed as having a 996 rating...
...When the city received federal funds earmarked to allow motorists to make right turns on red lights, how did Schneider spend the money...
...By wipingout the fund, which was financed by the gasoline tax, money once dedicated for road resurfacing and pothole repair could be fed to the Metro, which eagerly gobbled it down...
...True, we discovered that the pothole hotline number Mr...
...His crippling blow to roads came in 1976, when he convinced the city council to abolish the District of Columbia’s highway trust fund, always a favorite target for liberals...
...Schneider: “1 don’t think so...
...Cities are always facing budget crises, and road maintenance is often the first service to be cut...
...available from the federal government for road repair...
...But it became worth asking when, for purposes of comparison, we looked at the city of Minneapolis, which contains almost the same number of miles of streets as Washington...
...Pothole, also knownas Stanley Ather, met our initial ice-breakingjests with a frigid stare, so we got down to business...
...Were civil servants with titles like “Supervisory Booting Operations Analyst,” “Traffic Enumerator,” and “Counseling Psychologist’’ really that much more important than the people out on the streets doing the real work of the department...
...Nationally, this experience causes at least a billion dollars’ damage each year to cars and wastesa billion gallons of gas in sudden stops and starts...
...Minneapolis also has a “profiling machine” that drives down the street, shaving away bumps and grinding it smooth...
...Had the problem been eradicated while we sat in the waiting room...
...While Washington’s workers struggle to refill potholes that are continually springing open, Minneapolis workers spend their time doing preventive maintenance to head off deterioration...
...Ather told us about isn’t in service...
...and goes by the name “Mr...
...From 1975 until his resignation in 1980 Schneider spent hisdayssearching for newways to channel funds from street repair to his first love, the city’s rapidly expanding Metro subway...
...It wasn’t as if Metro’s fate hung in the balance, since the highway trust fund money accounted for only a small percentage of Metro’s cost...
...Statistics show that men don’t fall very often on sidewalks, or, when they do, they’re often too embarrassed to let anyone know...
...Here in Washington another factor in the pothole explosion has been a liberal hostility to roads and highways that turned a reasonable preference for mass transit into an absurd crusade...
...York Thie.s, the JaguarRover-Triumph Company made plaster molds of selected New York City potholes to send back-to their test course in England...
...It is the life-blood of a healthy street network...
...The city is filling the potholes brought to its attention...
...Vast slabs of broken concrete,” Lindahl answered, adding that he hopes to get money to resurface that one in 1984...
...Schneider, however, didn’t just cut back...
...They dumped their reports on the desk of the city’s legal counsel, declaring that the city had been given due notice and was now liable for damages...
...Because salt lowers the freezing point of water, cities use it to help melt ice and snow on.the roads, hoping to reduce accidents...
...We laughed at first, thinking it absurd tospend money to ease the impact of bumps you were supposed to be measuring...
...Mr...
...But even more curious than the “Incomparable Mays” was the Department of Transportation’s decision to let the number of field workers assigned to pothole repair dwindle from 130 to around 55 in the last decade, a period in which the backlog of bad streets was growing rapidly...
...In resurfacing only six miles a year, Schneider must have been assuming roads would last 200 years...
...But many cities over-use salt, a practice that, by increasing the number of freeze/ thaw cycles, can speed up the birth of potholes, not to mentioncorrodesteel bridgesand the undersides of cars...
...If there has been no prior complaint, liability is much harder to prove...
...The problem is [he wuy potholes are filled in the District and in many other cities...
...Pothole Potpourri “I think it’s immoral forsomebodytodriveacar downtown,” Douglas Schneider once told a reporter...
...The’deluxe package costs $20 and includes a photograph of your pothole and the inscription of your choice in the newly poured asphalt...
...The liability point answered another of our questions...
...he actually turned dmw money...
...For $100 They’ll Depose It...
...Those who fill the holes readily admit that the “repairs” will last only a few months, or, at most, a couple of seasons...
...and filling them...
...By 1980, Schneider’s last year in office, road resurfacing had dwindled toanannual total ofsi.umiles...
...Like almost everyone else, the Post missed the point that as roads are neglected they deteriorate further, which sends the cost of eventual repair soaring...
...and filling them...
...Ahem, let’s try another,” Ather suggested...
...Some cities even resort to prophylactic techniques, salting, roads he/ore big snow storms that often never arrive...
...According to 7he Nelt...
...The anti-pothole constituency is broad and is made up of a large number of people who are, for the most part, hurt or inconvenienced only slightly (although some serious auto accidents can result...
...Repeated freezing and thawing weakens the asphalt...
...That’s because the bulk of potholes are repaired simply by slopping hot asphalt into a hole...
...According to Charlie Williams, head engineer for the Bureau of Construction and Maintenance, $130 can repair 20 potholes but only four feet of curb: The more significant reason potholes get shortchanged, even though they inconvenience more people, has to do with what cruelly might be called the “old lady factor...
...Assuming the usual 25-year life-cycle for streets, Washington should have been resurfacing about 40 of its 1,100 miles of streets each year...
...Okay, you might say, the competition is a little unfair...
...And if you stack Washington up against a New York or a Houston, it doesn’t look so bad...
...Schneider realized that, despite mild protests, no one wasgoing to stop him fromdivertingfunds to the Metro project-the symbol of the city’s growth...
...The Old Lady Factor Since Schneider’s departure a year and a half ago, Washington’s pothole repair performance has gone in the only direction it could: Up...
...Recently he went elsewhere to lend his advice on transportation issues -Saudi Arabia, to be precise...
...But with more than 600 miles of roads in need of repair, and 100 of those in serious condition, how would the department choose where to begin...
...Upon examining funding reports, we discovered that Schneider threw money back to the Federal Highway Administration as well...
...Only a few that we can’t find...
...GOVERNMENT CAN’T DO ANYTHING RIGHT HAVEN’T SEEN THE DEPARTMENTOFTRANSPORTATION’S FREE MAP...
...Meanwhile, the anti-crumbling curb constituency is quite narrow and consists of a few people who are injured very seriously (or fear they will be...
...The citizens of Chauncy, Ohio, population I , 100, staged a two-day festival to raise funds to fill their potholes...
...Part of the explanation is that because curb repair takes some skill, most jobs are contracted out, which is expensive...
...Minnesota has always put the rest of the country to shame when it comes to efficiency in government...
...By diverting money and attention from a much more serious problem (potholes), the litigation system is undermining good public policy...
...Why so many streets in Washingtonand the rest of our nation’s cities have come to resemble grenade practice grounds is pretty clear...
...Nor did thecratersinouralleyget filled in48 hours;ittook nine days and might have taken much longer had we not reminded Schneider’s successor, Tom Downs, about them during an interview...
...Pothole explained...
...In Falls City, Oregon, potholes have been on sale since thc harsh winter of 1978...
...After New York City declared it was no longer liable for damage caused by potholes it didn’t know about, a group of lawyers roamed the streets in their cars and found 800,000 of them...
...Unfortunately, the repairs last only a short time...
...No mayor in the United States wants to suffer the fate that befell Mayors Michael Bilandic of Chicago and John Lindsayof New York, both of whom felt the wrath ofthevotersafterfailing to get snow off the streets quickly enough...
...Pothole wasn’t all that wrong...
...The city’s streets now bear such messages as “Happy Birthday, Dad” and “Here’s to You, Molly...
...Water that seeps under pavement expands when it freezes and contracts when the temperature rises...
...We were interested in talking to him about a unique driving experience familiar to residents of Washington and many other big cities across the country...
...Drive slowly in Riyadh...
...When the asphalt packs down, the new bump is almost as bad as the old hole...
...Anxious to talk to Schneider, we were referred by his consulting firm to his telephone answering machine...
...City records are filled with hundreds of pothole claims filed by male drivers for a few hundred dollars each and only a handful of sidewalk suits filed by female pedestrians-for several hundred thousand dollars each...
...The answer involves a strange beast called “The Incomparable Mays Ride Meter for Pavement Surveillance,” a computer-rigged truck that is driven around to determine the degree of bumpiness of every street in the District of Columbia...
...It’s a fine map, one of the best distributed free anywhere...
...The pothole in the report we selected took 25 days to repair...
...While salt may play havoc with the roads, it’s still considered politically prudent to use too much instead of too little...
...2) Slow down before hitting them...
...A 1978 exchange before the House Appropriations subcommittee went as follows: Rep...
...The plaque is right...
...The history of potholes is a history of neglect, of ignoring roads for matters that seemed more important at the time, like highersalariesfordeskbound bureaucrats or glamorous municipal convention centers...
...The “Cadillac,” we learned, is a $250,000 customized version of the Mays used by West Virginia and several other states...
...Why was the District of Columbia spending more than twice as much on repairing sidewalks and gutters-$2.6 million-as on potholes...
...If I had my way we’d have one of those Cadillacs, but I guess we can’t afford them,” he told us as we hopped aboard...
...William H. Natcher: “Have we reached a point where we should put in some additional money [for street repair] this year...
...program...
...Under Schneider, Washington killed any foundation that might have existed for an on-going preventive maintenance...
...He essentially duped the press and his bosses, Mayor Walter Washington and his successor, Marion Barry, into believing that his anti-motorist schemes were harmless...
...But Schneider doesn’t have one, and if he did, it would serve little purpose...
...Washington Would Need a World’s Fair...
...We glanced at each other while Ather, a 16-year veteran of pothole wars, sat in silence...
...But one jarring visit along Washington’s Whitehurst Freeway was enough to change that view...
...which eventually cracks and crumbles under the weight of cars and trucks...
...For $50 the lawyers will find out if the pothole that wrecked your car is registered...
...Or, more likely, he was assuming nothing at all, except perhaps that cars and trucks weren’t worth bothering with-and that he wouldn’t be around long enough to catch the blame...
...For The Man Who Has Everything...
...During his tenure, Schneider passed up nearly $500 million in matching funds available to Washington’s Department of Transportation...
...The meter ratesstreetsonascaleofOto 1,000,with 400 currently the standard for determining if resurfacing is needed...
...Given the behavior of most government agencies nowadays, that may seem like a rhetorical question...
...Most mayors love todedicate new buildings;&eeping the streets repaired, on the other hand, doesn’t lend itself to ribbon-cutting ceremonies and getting on the evening news...
...A plaque at the Department of Transportation reads: THE CYNICS WHO SAY THE D.C...
...The truth was that Douglas Schneider hated cars so much that he waged a tireless guerrilla war against them and their occupants...
...Elderly women, on theother hand, not only tend to let city hall know they’ve fallen, but they sue-for big money...
...For $10 residentscan “purchase” a pothole and receive a certificate from thc city bearing their name and the location of their filled-in hole...
...But at least the effort is being made...
...When it comes to potholes, there’s absolutely no reason Washington can’t behave like Minneapolis...
...Pothole...
...L. C. and J. W. POTHOLES ON PARADE . . . You Can’t Compromise on Quality...
...As we later learned, Mr...
...A POTHOLE IS BORN: If you’ve ever left a bottle of Pepsi in the freezer and had to clean up afterwards, you have some idea of how potholes are born...
...The American Automobile Association has outlined a procedure to minimize pothole damage: I ) Avoid hitting potholes...
...However,it’s not the gender of the litigants that’s important here...
...until that happens, it’s so loosely fitted that a die-hard roadhater could easily spoon it out...
...Our bruises and whipsawed stomachs notwithstanding, the Whitehurst registered 263, or 137 points short of the400 necessary to be considered for resurfacing...
...The advantage is that it assures a smooth ride for its occupants...
...Resurfacing is different from haphazardly filling potholes...
...This is especially true right now, because Mayor Marion Barry is up for reelection...
...He was director of the Department ofTransportation for the city of Washington, D.C...
...Isn’t there enough money to fill all the potholes?“ we asked...
...Salt is another cause of road and bridge deterioration...
...Jaguar believes New York has the “finest in the world...
...But when you think about it, that’s a lame excuse for improper repair, lack of planning, and a history of neglecting the streets for much less important concerns...
...Schneider wasn’t a bicyclist or an energyconscious grandmother who liked to take the bus...
...Noticing our bewilderment, Ather explained that there was a simple system under which all potholes reported by the public are repaired within 48 hours: He strolled confidently to a large metal filing cabinet and told us to pick out a report, any report...
...In other words, if you plan to wreck your car or wound your body driving over a pothole, it’s prudent to call the road maintenancedepartment first to report which one you plan to hit...
...Fortunately Schneider resigned just before the offers were to expire, allowing his successors to snap up most of the $500 million...
...He turned down more than $ I 0 million targeted for bridgeworkdespite the fact that Washington is known to have some of the worst bridges in the country...
...By putting up “No Right on Red” signs at virtually every major intersection in Washington...
...Here at last was an explanation for why so few streets are repaired permanently by resurfacing instead of having crews dribble a little asphalt into a hole that will reappear soon after they return to the shop...
...it’s the nature of the curb/ pothole trade-off...
...The Amazing Mays After Douglas Schneider’s antics, we were relieved to learn that the District of Columbia’s Department of Transportation plans to resurface some 3 I miles of streets this year...
...Minneapolis, on the other hand, is three quarters of the way through a 20-year plan for resurfacing a// residential streets in the city...
...The way the law works, if the city has been informed of a dangerous pothole, it’s liable forany damage until the pothole is “repaired...
...District of Columbia officialsadmitthat when road resurfacing is postponed until the underlying base begins to deteriorate, rebuilding costs increase six-fold...
...To find out why that has changed, we paid a call recently on a man who works for the city of Washington, D.C...
...Ah, liability...
...There are basically no potholes in the District of Columbia...
Vol. 14 • September 1982 • No. 7
