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Just have to ask... where is everyone's most traveled (for them) stretch of road with either a lot of potholes, or one really big one where it really shouldn't be?
Many parts of California! Uneven bumpy roads, crater sized potholes, and deep severe cracks that are all never addressed by the state and local governments.
Try Michigan highways witch has the highest weight limit for semi trucks in the nation because of the automotive industry. Some of the potholes are like moon craters in the winter and spring time.
Try Michigan highways witch has the highest weight limit for semi trucks in the nation because of the automotive industry. Some of the potholes are like moon craters in the winter and spring time.
Michigan is bad although it has little to do with truck weights.
The worst road I know of is the one in front of my house. It got some giant holes that would break every car that hit them, We used to go out with marking paint and mark the hole, walk up a hundred or so feet and write "hole" on the road with an arrow so people at least had some warning. We could only do that with the giant holes. Smaller holes -there were just so many we would be covering the entire road with paint. The edges of the road are basically gone so you have to drive in the middle and someone has to pull over when two cars meet, or, if you have a truck, you can bounce along at 5 mph.
They have not been able to do much with it because, if they use Federal funds (or sate funds that came from Federal sources), then they woudl have to bring the road up to modern standards which is virtually impossible. They considered making it a one way street (this woudl allow them to meet Federal Standards) and they considered ripping up the pavement and just making it a dirt road. They finally just closed most of it. Recently they figured out that if they replace all the water mains along that road, then they can use Federal infrastructure (water) money to repave the road after ripping it out to replace the water mains without having to widen the road, install drains and miles of guardrail. With Water main replacement, they are allows to just repave the road as it was. The water mains are old anyway, so it suddenly became time to replace them.
The worst freeway is hard to choose. Big car wrecking potholes pop up constantly, then they get filled or patched. Many of the worst sections of freeway are being reconstructed. Our biggest problem is bridges. There are thousands of them and most are falling apart. When a bridge gets a hole, it is essentially bottomless. It it is a sizable hole you are going to lose a tire or tie rod if you hit it at freeway speeds.
Michigan has been under-spending most other states on road replacement and maintenance for decades. Every time the legislature realizes they cannot kick the can down the road any longer and they pass a new tax for road repair, the money gets grabbed in bits and pieces for other purposes. Then as you get behind on maintenance, the cost of repair or replacement increases exponentially.
People from Michigan are always surprised to learn we do not have the worst roads in the country. We are not even in the top ten. However where many other places focus their resources in the most populated areas, Michigan was required by its own laws to spread road resources out evenly. Thus, many of our little used roads in remove locations are in beautiful shape, while the roads and highways in densely populated areas are in terrible condition. This creates the appearance that our roads are the worst because the roads most people encounter are terrible, however the average is balanced out due to the excellent condition of roads in more rural areas where they get less use.
While we may not have the worst road right now, we may well be int he worst shape of any state. Our roads are decaying quickly and, due to neglect, the costs to fix themstay ahead fo the willingness toapprpriate the money. Son they ar egoing to have to convert roads back to gravel and just close some roads due to bridge conditions.
Michigan is bad although it has little to do with truck weights.
The worst road I know of is the one in front of my house. It got some giant holes that would break every car that hit them, We used to go out with marking paint and mark the hole, walk up a hundred or so feet and write "hole" on the road with an arrow so people at least had some warning. We could only do that with the giant holes. Smaller holes -there were just so many we would be covering the entire road with paint. The edges of the road are basically gone so you have to drive in the middle and someone has to pull over when two cars meet, or, if you have a truck, you can bounce along at 5 mph he hauled from the Docks on the Detroit river and hauled out of Rouge Steel.
They have not been able to do much with it because, if they use Federal funds (or sate funds that came from Federal sources), then they woudl have to bring the road up to modern standards which is virtually impossible. They considered making it a one way street (this woudl allow them to meet Federal Standards) and they considered ripping up the pavement and just making it a dirt road. They finally just closed most of it. Recently they figured out that if they replace all the water mains along that road, then they can use Federal infrastructure (water) money to repave the road after ripping it out to replace the water mains without having to widen the road, install drains and miles of guardrail. With Water main replacement, they are allows to just repave the road as it was. The water mains are old anyway, so it suddenly became time to replace them.
The worst freeway is hard to choose. Big car wrecking potholes pop up constantly, then they get filled or patched. Many of the worst sections of freeway are being reconstructed. Our biggest problem is bridges. There are thousands of them and most are falling apart. When a bridge gets a hole, it is essentially bottomless. It it is a sizable hole you are going to lose a tire or tie rod if you hit it at freeway speeds.
Michigan has been under-spending most other states on road replacement and maintenance for decades. Every time the legislature realizes they cannot kick the can down the road any longer and they pass a new tax for road repair, the money gets grabbed in bits and pieces for other purposes. Then as you get behind on maintenance, the cost of repair or replacement increases exponentially.
People from Michigan are always surprised to learn we do not have the worst roads in the country. We are not even in the top ten. However where many other places focus their resources in the most populated areas, Michigan was required by its own laws to spread road resources out evenly. Thus, many of our little used roads in remove locations are in beautiful shape, while the roads and highways in densely populated areas are in terrible condition. This creates the appearance that our roads are the worst because the roads most people encounter are terrible, however the average is balanced out due to the excellent condition of roads in more rural areas where they get less use.
While we may not have the worst road right now, we may well be int he worst shape of any state. Our roads are decaying quickly and, due to neglect, the costs to fix themstay ahead fo the willingness toapprpriate the money. Son they ar egoing to have to convert roads back to gravel and just close some roads due to bridge conditions.
Michigan’s heavy weight law don’t help the steel haulers really do a number on the roads I’ve seen them running overweight during the night when the weigh master is not out, when you drive a steel hauler the driver gets paid by the weight of the load not by the hour or the mile just the weight I know my brother owned 5 steel haulers.
I can understand Michigan roads being horrible with all the bad weather you guys get, but as a Californian, there’s no excuse to why our streets, and freeways are in such crappy conditions with our weather being great pretty much all year long and all the high taxes we pay.
What’s still bad, is even when something is repaved the quality of the asphalt and the job itself is of poor quality. The streets are still uneven, rough feeling and the pavement eventually falls apart much sooner than it’s supposed to.
They are really bad around here too, I try to watch for them and avoid them, but its tough. What surprises me is there hasnt been any innovations in road construction or materials in many many years.
Saw on on I-480 that could have killed someone. Tweeted ODOT. It was fixed within 4 hours.
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