Maine DOT canceling most paving work (2009, house, buying)

[forest beekeeper]

Maine DOT to cancel most maintenance paving work - Boston.com

Maine DOT is canceling most maintenance paving work

Citing reduced funding levels, they are canceling about 75 percent of all maintenance paving projects over the next two years. DOT will cancel nearly 40 percent of this year's maintenance surface treatment projects and all of next year's.

This includes road surface treatments that prevent water and ice damage, extend road life and avert the need for more costly repairs later.

[dmyankee]

What happened to all the bonds we have passed the last 20 years for "Infrastructure Improvements?"

[flycessna]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

What happened to all the bonds we have passed the last 20 years for "Infrastructure Improvements?"

I wish we had an answer to that question as that was the first thing I thought of.


And what about all of the DOT workers that would have been working on our roads.... what will they be doing?

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by flycessna

I wish we had an answer to that question as that was the first thing I thought of.


And what about all of the DOT workers that would have been working on our roads.... what will they be doing?

Either:

1. They will be laid off and we will see it in the news;

or

2. They are government workers who are terribly difficult to fire, so they will remain 'at work'. The cost savings will be seen from the lack of buying asphalt and fuel to operate the equipment. No heavy equipment moving around, and no asphalt being laid should save a lot of money. Even though it leaves the workers drinking coffee in their offices.

Which might be better than their normal routine of carrying clipboards and leaning on shovels in public.

[GreenGene]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Either:

1. They will be laid off and we will see it in the news;

or

2. They are government workers who are terribly difficult to fire, so they will remain 'at work'. The cost savings will be seen from the lack of buying asphalt and fuel to operate the equipment. No heavy equipment moving around, and no asphalt being laid should save a lot of money. Even though it leaves the workers drinking coffee in their offices.

Which might be better than their normal routine of carrying clipboards and leaning on shovels in public.

Third possibility (from the article you linked to):

"Cole said the roads need work and contractors need the work, but the DOT lacks the funding, and "we are doing the best we can with what we have."

Reduced work on the roads means reduced number of contractors hired to do the work.

Information regarding Maine DOT contracts can be found here: Contractor & Consultant Information

[BrokenTap]

A legislature asked that very question. The DOT said they had "56 workers who are taking early retirement and that they would not refill their positions with new hires."

That was when the legislator said, "So what the hell do we have 56 workers for the DOT not doing a damn thing for? Save the retirement pay and just fire them."

We need more legislatures like this old duffer!

[BrokenTap]

You know me, I look at things from outside the box, so please follow me on this for a moment.

If the price of oil makes asphalt super expensive to place (40 dollars a ton currently) then what if there was an alternative? In front of my house they ripped up the hot top and refuse to pave it in. I can tell you going back to gravel roads would be difficult to push on Maine people accustomed to hot top.

But this state is the heavily forested state in the nation. What if we built plants that could process the resins in wood to help bond wood chips or aggregate together enough to drive over...a natural hot top if you will. I don't have the exact recipe but follow me for a minute in concept. This biodegradable, or at least locally produced road surface would help employ local people, get the loggers working again, and put the papermill workers back to work processing wood into a slightly different process.

I just sold 11 cords of high resinous hackmatack for a measly $213.79. Not per cord...for 10 cords! That is pretty much giving the wood away and how many papermills do we have that are shut down? I think Maine has the knowledge, the workforce and the trees to start improving our roads from within. We just need to refine my idea and make it possible.

It is so silly to pump oil out of the ground in Iraq, haul it over here so we can drive on it. We are just being non-creatative when it comes to road surfaces. We (as Mainers) need to wake up and drive on something better.

[msina]

BrokenTap, my DH has been saying for years that the gound up tire mulch material should have a use for paving. Alternate products are good ideas.

[reloop]

Tire mulch was the first thing that came to mind for me too.

We put reclaim (ground up asphalt from rebuilt roads) on a road we have. It worked wonders and has held up so well that we didn't have to grade the road at all this year. This road was a mud hole with runoff causing a major mud pit on one section during prior spring seasons.

[cdodge04]

No/limited road work is not good, so many of the roads are in such bad shape...

With all the technology we have, it amazes me that we can't build better roads that last longer. I know that the winters do a number on the roads...but still. We can put people on the moon, cures for all these diseases, clone sheep...but can't build a road that lasts more then a year or two without having major issues.