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A2-pot Hole Paradise

A2-pot Hole Paradise image
Parent Issue
Day
22
Month
March
Year
1974
OCR Text

One thing is that the new budget goes to Council after the next election and the loss of even one Republican seat could give everyone a better bargaining position, especially since it takes 7 votes to pass contracts.

But these organizations cannot afford to wait and see what happens. Most of them are already looking for alternative funding. The Day Care centers are trying for State, and United Fund. Ozone has been officially recognized by the State as a worthwhile thing and may someday even get some cash for it. But they can't count on it. They're getting ready to scale down. Places like Octagon will have to beef up the local match or get a more favorable ratio. They are working on it. They are investigating possibilities with the county and other local townships. Additionally they are bargaining with the State. 

Most of these places will survive, in one form or another. The loss will be in effectiveness. It will be in the number of people served, and the quality of that service. But the loss will not be to these organizations, or even City Council. It will be to the people of Ann Arbor.

-- Michael Cheeseman

A2 - Pot Hole Paradise

The streets and roads in Ann Arbor are in terrible shape. It's a no-person's land where yawning potholes and pieces of pavement loom up everywhere to trap and cripple the unsuspecting motorist. It looks like hell, while cars shake, rattle, and roll all over town till they simply fall apart.

The byword for street construction and maintenance in this town seems to be sheer neglect. The roads are badly built in the first place and little is done for them after that until they fall apart.

Many roads in Ann Arbor are merely a strip of asphalt laid over whatever is already there. Often what is already there is dirt or an old brick street. Dirt is an incredibly bad base for a road, and nothing will adhere to bricks. There are better ways of building roads than this, but the city is obviously more concerned with the amount of roads they build rather than the quality.

After the city builds these lousy roads, they do nothing to take care of them. There are means for prolonging the life of roads. Means which can actually save money over simple patchwork. At this time, however, the city has no systematic program of preventative maintenance or any kind of weight ordinance. Nor apparently has it even considered these measures.

Everyone knows that the streets are in bad shape, but few have considered how much it's costing in terms of wear on their automobiles. According to the front-end man out at Zahn's Auto Repair, the most common pothole problem is rim damage. Apparently there are some holes big enough to actually bend the rims on your car. Even if the tire is left intact, the rim replacement alone could cost twenty dollars. In some instances, he said, the victim had lost a front and rear rim at the same time. That kind of impact is bound to shake other things loose on a car. Additionally, the constant bump and grind increases suspension wear considerably. Ball joints, idler arms go out quicker. Wheel alignments are needed more often. If you don't get them, your tires wear out amazingly fast and your gas mileage goes down.

There is also the interesting possibility that the city may actually be legally liable for such damage. No one has brought them to court yet, but I've talked to a couple of people who are seriously considering it.

There are many causes of road deterioration. The initial construction is an important factor. Age, combined with general wear and tear, weather conditions, excessive loading, high traffic volume, and road salting are some others. Some of these things, you obviously can't do anything about. But some, you can, and this is where the city's neglect really shows through.

According to the Public Works Head, Frederick Mammel, the average life of a road is about ten to fifteen years. After that, if nothing is done, it just kind of wears away, like an old pair of shoes.

Mammel suggests that one solution to this problem would be a good systematic program of road surfacing, Ann Arbor does not have such a program. Presently we wait till something breaks, and then try to fix or replace it. A resurfacing program, Mammel feels, would prolong the life of the roads and save the taxpayers money in the long run.

Mammel says the weather problem was much more severe this year. According to the Michigan State Highway Department Laboratory, our streets are especially susceptible to this problem because of their poor construction. Most of the state highways are constructed so that this is not nearly as bad a problem.

What happens, basically, is that water gets beneath the pavement and freezes. When you have a mild wet winter like the one we just had, it keeps thawing and refreezing and weaking the base beneath the pavement. This is why the base is important. If you have a good base it can withstand this freezing and thawing. If you have a poor base, or no base at all it gives away and leaves the pavement above unsupported. The weight of traffic above eventually causes the pavement to settle into the pockets left by the receding base. When the settling pieces break up, the cars and trucks come along, flip the pieces out, and eureka, potholes! John Millspaugh, the Superintendent of the Public Works Street Division says that road salting can increase this problem.

The problem of excessive loading is especially critical during the spring when the roads are already weakened by the freezing and thawing. These conditions combined with the general quality of city street construction cause a lot of trouble. Yet Ann Arbor has no weight restrictions on it's streets and roads. I tried to find out why. The only answer I got was that nobody ever thought of it.

Millspaugh feels that the trucks are a problem. A good example he used was Ellsworth road, which was once maintained by the county and subject to county weight restrictions. It has since fallen into the city's hands and the resulting increase in heavy truck traffic has caused a considerable increase in road damage.

The problem is a similar one all over town where trucks laden with drywall, gravel and other goodies rumble and rip where they please. Millspaugh said that he felt weight restrictions would definitely help the situation. He added that he felt the criteria for such restrictions might be difficult to establish.

Such a thing would take an effort on behalf of City Council, it could be done. Many cities have such ordinances. The county has weight restrictions, and for good reason... they build their roads as poorly as we do.

--Michael Cheeseman