Minnesota Infrastructure. Most notably Roads. (Minneapolis, Northfield: maintenance, costs, versus)

[Danie123182]

Does Minnesota ever do preventive maintenance like seal coatings. (Before Cracks appear).

Does the twin cities even have a preventive maintenance team or do they just wait for potholes to appear and then patch them?

The weather argument is void. Des Moines has outstanding roads.

[golfgal]

This winter has been especially hard on the roads. Yes, we do preventative maintenance and there are plenty of roads around the metro that are just fine. Due to budget cuts though, they have not been filling pot holes like they normally do through the winter. Believe it or not, the minor temperature difference from Des Moines to Minneapolis does make a difference.

[Voyageur]

Originally Posted by golfgal

This winter has been especially hard on the roads. Yes, we do preventative maintenance and there are plenty of roads around the metro that are just fine. Due to budget cuts though, they have not been filling pot holes like they normally do through the winter. Believe it or not, the minor temperature difference from Des Moines to Minneapolis does make a difference.

As for potholes, I've never seen the city of Northfield ignore them like they have this winter. They're not totally being ignored, but they're not being filled promptly at all. Budget issues, I imagine.

I also notice the city isn't even bothering with enforcing snow removal from residential sidewalks, either. Again, perhaps, the budget. No staff to bother with that.

You're right about the weather difference between the Twin Cities and Des Moines. The number of freeze-thaw cycles is less, the traffic is less, and the amount of snowfall each winter is approximately 20" less, providing less of the raw material (water) which causes all those problems with it freezes/thaws/freezes repeatedly and which results in less plowing and less salting, both of which cause increased wear of roads.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Danie123182

The weather argument is void. Des Moines has outstanding roads.

As others have said, the weather argument isn't really void (heck, there are major differences in weather just in northern versus central Minnesota), but I also suspect the Twin Cities has a few more roads than the Des Moines metro which can also make a difference in terms of expense and timely coverage.

I suspect the best time to compare the two is in the fall before the long freeze/thaw cycle hits. I've seen a lot of new potholes down here in Atlanta this year, mainly due to slower response times due to funding issues.

[knke0204]

The infrastructure here is deterriorating. That statement can be said in almost any metro area in the USA. Most large projects from the 60s-90s haven't been maintained at a pace in which they should have. Simply throwing blacktop into potholes works like a band-aid, a temporary fix to the problem. It's really tough because here in Minnesota we see such extremes. In the summer, roads buckle because of the heat. In winter, potholes are formed because of the cold. This time of the year is the worst for potholes. During the day the intensity of the sun plus the naturally rising daytime temps plus the lenght of sunlight, warms up snow and ice making it melt, also known as contracting. At night, when the temps dip down into the teens that water freezes into cracks and expands. Hey water has created a crater miles deep into the earth, a pothole is nothin.

Budget issues are the number one reason why things aren't being done

[Danie123182]

Well I knew before I posted this that people would come to defend it. But the fact is as someone that hasn't been here in 5 years the difference is night and day. It has nothing really to do with the weather and everything to do with misplacement of funds. There is exposed rebar on the flyover from NB 35W to WB 94. There is no excuse for this. There are chuncks of bridge falling into the freeway. Are you people blind?

As someone that has been a truck driver for the past 5 years I must tell you that the roads in this state are the worst in the nation.

[Danie123182]

Don't take this the wrong way. I love Minnesota and would gladly pay an extra couple hundred dollars/year in order to avoid having to repair suspension parts.

And of course alignments twice a year.

[Voyageur]

Originally Posted by Danie123182

Well I knew before I posted this that people would come to defend it.

Then why did you bother posting?

Look, you claimed the weather issue was void regarding the Twin Cities and Des Moines. It's not - the Twin Cities experiences a winter that is notably harder on roads in a variety of ways, as I listed.

But aside from that, three of the four respondents (myself included) specifically stated that part of the problem is budgetary issues.

Looks, the reality is that Minnesota, due to its weather, experiences more damage to roads in the winter. Thus, in a time of acutely limited funds, Minnesota is more likely to scrimp on road repair. As such, we have the current state of roads.

But the fact is as someone that hasn't been here in 5 years the difference is night and day. It has nothing really to do with the weather and everything to do with misplacement of funds.

a) Once again, three of us four who responded specifically stated that part of the problem was that sufficient funds were not being allocated to road repair.

b) The weather is indeed an issue, because greater costs to a specific problem make that problem more likely to suffer budgetary cuts when savings must be found.

There is exposed rebar on the flyover from NB 35W to WB 94. There is no excuse for this. There are chuncks of bridge falling into the freeway. Are you people blind?

You're the one ignoring the fact that 75% of us have mentioned budget problems are part of the issue. Someone is acting blind, all right.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Danie123182

Well I knew before I posted this that people would come to defend it. But the fact is as someone that hasn't been here in 5 years the difference is night and day. It has nothing really to do with the weather and everything to do with misplacement of funds. There is exposed rebar on the flyover from NB 35W to WB 94. There is no excuse for this. There are chuncks of bridge falling into the freeway. Are you people blind?

As someone that has been a truck driver for the past 5 years I must tell you that the roads in this state are the worst in the nation.

Then you must not have been to South Dakota and Missouri. Their roads and infrastructure are significantly worse then what we have here.

[chilaili]

Perhaps the OP could start a similar campaign: German village sells holes in road