<div style="margin-bottom: 25px;">
Visit two websites allowing drivers to pin-point potholes in their area.
 

<h3>Pothole City</h3>
<a style="background-image: none;" href="http://www.potholecity.com/" target="_blank"> </a><a href="http://www.pothole.info/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/pothole-city-e1271131790912.jpg"></a>
<a href="http://www.potholecity.com/" target="_blank"> 
Visit Pothole City</a>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 25px;">
<h3>Mark the Potholes</h3>
<a style="background-image: none;" href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/specials/013009_pothole/" target="_blank"> </a><a href="http://www.pothole.info/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/mark-the-potholes-e1271131775554.jpg"></a>
<a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/specials/013009_pothole/" target="_blank"> 
Visit Mark the Potholes – Boston.com</a>
</div>

Pothole Plotters

[vc_row type="in_container" full_screen_row_position="middle" column_margin="default" scene_position="center" text_color="dark" text_align="left" overlay_strength="0.3" shape_divider_position="bottom" bg_image_animation="none"][vc_column column_padding="no-extra-padding" column_padding_position="all" background_color_opacity="1" background_hover_color_opacity="1" column_link_target="_self" column_shadow="none" column_border_radius="none" width="1/1" tablet_width_inherit="default" tablet_text_alignment="default" phone_text_alignment="default" overlay_strength="0.3" column_border_width="none" column_border_style="solid" bg_image_animation="none"][vc_column_text]As States Turn to Pavement Preservation, Road Repair Methods Improve
The economics affecting road building and road repair in the current economy are pretty straightforward. Costs for everything are up, funding is down – and road disintegration continues its natural course, unabated.
Federal funding assistance for new roads and road preservation is now stimulated with an infusion of cash from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009. Often, however, red tape and politics add speed bumps and lead to dead ends. Fortunately, some states are finding ways to make it work.
Population growth and economic recovery, when it comes, will only create a greater need for navigable roads, free of hazardous and <a href="https://www.ezstreetasphalt.com/case-studies/pothole-repair/pothole-vigilante/">damaging potholes</a>. The present way we build and maintain roads and bridges will be difficult to sustain – unless new technologies are developed and adopted.
This is a concern that is echoed by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in a joint report it issued with the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) in 2009. It says highway funding is "in an unprecedented crisis." In summary, the Highway Trust Fund – which comes from the national 18.4 cents per gallon gas tax – is "just about broke," purchasing power for road building and repair have been eroded by inflation, and the political climate is unlikely to allow increased revenue from drivers (with per gallon taxes and tolls). Environmental concerns, while laudable, are directing more funds toward public transit and railroads, further challenging America's aging highway system.
<blockquote>
VMT – vehicle miles traveled – increased from 2.4 trillion in 1993 to 3.0 trillion in 2007 (the current recession has reduced that slightly to about 2.9 trillion).
</blockquote>
Time, weather, and moisture are the enemy of road maintenance, but so is population increase, which is about as likely as rain in Oregon. People use roads, as do manufacturers and merchants who ship products to ever more populated cities and towns. Some facts to consider:
<ul type="disc">
<li>The current U.S. population of 305 million is projected to increase to 420 million by year 2050.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>VMT – vehicle miles traveled – increased from 2.4 trillion in 1993 to 3.0 trillion in 2007 (the current recession has reduced that slightly to about 2.9 trillion).</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Truck freight is expected to double from current levels by 2030.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Optimally, road and highway maintenance should receive $166 billion from government funding. Current spending on surface transportation (roads and highways) is less than $90 billion per year.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>The 2009 federal economic stimulus funds add an additional $27 billion to the surface transportation budget, but those funds are to be spent over at least two years, and so the annual allowance remains well below ideal.</li>
</ul>
It is not enough, not by a long shot, and the problem will only get worse. Solutions are sorely needed.
Preserve and save 
Roads are like people in that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, in that routine maintenance can significantly prolong the life of a road. Preventive maintenance is economically smart, as long as the plan for pavement preservation is smartly devised and implemented.
In 2008, Michigan Department of Transportation Director Kirk T. Steudle told the Pavement Preservation Journal, "It costs $1 to keep a road in good shape for every $7 you would have to spend on reconstruction." Steudel also noted how bad pavement diminishes road safety, which places further economic burdens on individuals, families, healthcare systems and insurance companies. "It's another drag on the economy."
One organization working for solutions is the Foundation for Pavement Preservation (FPP), a non-profit industry group that looks at roads as investments. Rather than regarding maintenance as a cost – how it is typically seen in a budget line item, subject to political costcutting – FPP urges local, state and federal government decision makers to consider money spent on preservation as a means of maximizing the original investment.
Cutting through the red tape 
The Illinois Department of Transportation, IDOT, takes the position that preventive maintenance treatments are a means to improve the functional condition of the road network, "reducing the overall rate of deterioration of the pavement asset." IDOT also prioritizes maintaining a high level of service and minimizing what it calls the "network's life-cycle cost," a multi-year calculation that facilitates long-range, comprehensive highway quality management. The state agency also provided guidelines and training to local municipalities on road preservation, and it involved private industry in the overall program.
What Illinois does that many states do not is use federal funds for pavement preservation; other states instead reserve those funds for large projects undertaken every few years, such as new road construction.
This is where it gets tricky: Bidding procedures in Illinois and other states often differ from federal bidding requirements, which often stands in the way of using federal funds for pavement preservation. IDOT particularly encountered difficulties using hot mix asphalt overlays due to its high expense and perceived long-term ineffectiveness.
Pavement preservation best practices 
Still, some states are finding ways to do it right. The Asphalt Pavement Alliance makes an annual award to states that maintain roads that are at least 35 years old and which had at least 13 years between paving resurfacing. Other criteria for the award are excellence in design, quality in construction and driver value, factored against traffic levels on the section of road being evaluated for the honor. Here are 2009 award recipients:
Washington State: The Washington State Department of Transportation says its entire highway system would cost $266 billion to replace, including smaller bridges and the purchase of land. Starting from this asset management standpoint, WSDOT invests in infrastructure as a matter of safety, environmental concern and mobility.
WSDOT won its Perpetual Pavement Award for a four-mile section of Interstate 5 near the city of Everett, Washington. This particular stretch of highway handles more than 60,000 vehicles per day, 4,400 of which are heavy trucks.
According to WSDOT's press release announcing this award, the agency's "pavement preservation goal is to preserve state highways at the lowest cost per year of pavement life." WSDOT's 2007 pavement condition survey found that 93 percent of state-owned roads rate as "fair" or better. The state has budgeted $328 million for 2009-2011 in pavement preservation projects.
Mississippi: This state received its Perpetual Pavement Award for a 10.9-mile section of U.S. Highway 90 in Jackson County, which connects coastal communities of Ocean Springs and Gautier. The road was built in two phases, completed in 1960, with overlays applied in 1973 and 1989 only. In an official MDOT long-range research planning document, it says that pavement preservation is the state's number one priority among 29 research subjects.
Minnesota: Awarded the Perpetual Pavement Award for a 1970-constructed, six-mile stretch of Highway 71, which received an asphalt overlay in 2005. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is designating more of the department's FY 2011 budget to pavement preservation than ever before due to "extraordinary inflation in paving materials and rising project costs." Criteria for long-lived, cost effective fixes are a life expectancy of 15 years or more.
Tennessee: Honored for five miles of westbound State Route 1-US 11 in Grainger County, the state is known for well-maintained scenic highways, with 14,000 miles under the aegis of TDOT. Statewide they use micro surfacing methods among other technologies, and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officers recognized Tennessee in 2009 as number one in the country with the smoothest overall system.
Necessity is the mother of invention 
Given the sheer economic and cultural pressures on having a workable road and highway system, engineers and scientists have applied themselves to finding better solutions to road deterioration.
An important program authorized by the U.S. Congress two decades ago began looking for innovations in road design and preservation. Called the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP), it is the engine for the development of scores of products and methods, many of which are already in use.
One category of products from SHRP is Superpave®, which combines innovations in asphalt binders and a design/analysis system tied to the volumetric properties of the asphalt mix, all subject to models for mix-analysis tests and performance prediction.
While pavement preservation is often defined as paving resurfacing, pothole repairs traditionally fall into another category. Usually done with hot mix asphalt, this expensive and ineffective method is widely regarded as a bandage approach. However, innovations in recent years, included permanent cold-mix asphalt products, can serve as a permanent repair. Operationally simple, it can be applied as an overlayment, to utility cuts, joint repairs, outer edge repairs, surface patches and in "throw and go" pothole repairs. Because it is a cold mix, work crews have greater time-use latitude – days and weeks instead of hours for hot mix – which ultimately reduces associated labor costs. This cold mix is much more resilient, lasting for years (the experience with traditional hot mix asphalt pothole fillers is they are seasonal bandages, sometimes deteriorating in just a few weeks).
What a handful of states and many road technology researchers show is that there's more than one way to build and maintain a road – better, cheaper and longer lasting. Innovation – supported by experimentation – is the best bet for smoother, lower-cost highways and byways.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Focus On Preservation

Pavement Preservation a Smart Road to Better Economies
A highway network is a lot like the human cardiovascular system. Good pavement and minimal construction zones keep a local economy moving, healthy and growing, but potholes and slow-moving construction projects are like plaque – they render regional commerce sclerotic.
This stands to reason. If a state or municipality is pockmarked by rough pavement, it is going to take longer to deliver goods in and out of the region. Delivery vehicles will be damaged more often (flat tires, bent tire rims, broken axels, etc.) and need more repairs. Labor and gas costs increase when traffic moves slowly – due simply to bad conditions, or lane closures during extended resurfacing projects – causing drivers and their passengers to endure more time per trip. When bad streets are all that connect consumers to a shopping center, the options to shop online, in stores elsewhere or not at all become much more attractive. The online alternative might come with a higher price if parcel delivery services (FedEx, UPS or US Postal Service) begin to tally and charge for the added costs of delivering in specific areas.
With aging highway and secondary road systems handling increasing amounts of traffic, this looks like a situation that can only go from bad to worse. The federal 2009 stimulus package will make a dent in repairing some of the roads, but even that infusion of money into the system can only repair a fraction of what needs to be done.
Where are the solutions? Ingenuity, particularly in how pavement preservation methods are helping reduce the cost of road maintenance, is America’s greatest resource. Many states, cities and counties are experimenting successfully with new products and methods because regional economies have so much to lose to bad roads.
Bad roads = Bad business 
The Road Information Program (TRIP), a Washington-based non-profit organization that advocates for policies that relieve traffic congestion, improve road conditions and enhance economic productivity, released a report in 2004 on poor road conditions in Virginia (“Paying the Price for Inadequate Roads in Virginia, the Cost to Motorists in Reduced Safety, Lost Time and Increased Vehicle Wear”). A primary conclusion is “the quality of a region’s transportation system is an important factor in where businesses and industries decide to locate, expand or downsize. A modern transportation system is of critical importance if Virginia is to capitalize on economic development opportunities.”
<blockquote>Ninety-four percent of the $123 billion worth of commodities delivered annually to and from sites in Virginia is transported on the state’s highways.</blockquote>
Anyone ever stuck in traffic knows this is no small point. If costs for a driver are $60 an hour, and increased commuter times due to road repair or detour routing adds 200 hours per year, multiply that for a business with a fleet of 100 delivery vehicles and that business alone will incur an additional $1.2 million each year. If rough pavement adds $300 per vehicle costs every 12 months, that’s an additional $300,000 in repair costs. If customers are dissatisfied with either increased delivery costs or delayed deliveries, well, the damage is even greater.
The TRIP report elaborates further:
<ul type="disc">
<li>Ninety-four percent of the $123 billion worth of commodities delivered annually to and from sites in Virginia is transported on the state’s highways.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Businesses have responded to improved communications and greater competition by moving from a push-style distribution system, which relies on low-cost movement of bulk commodities and large-scale warehousing, to a pull-style distribution system, which relies on smaller, more strategic and time-sensitive movement of goods. The recent improvements in the nation’s logistics systems have made mobile inventories the norm, resulting in the nation’s trucks literally becoming rolling warehouses.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Trucking is a crucial part of Virginia’s economy, as commercial trucks move goods from sites across the state to markets inside and outside the state. Because of this, commercial truck travel in Virginia will increase by 51 percent by 2020.</li>
</ul>
In other words, economic forces are increasingly dependent on quality roads for delivery. In congested areas along the Eastern Seaboard, are states that are better at maintaining roads more attractive to businesses?
The report says those regions will definitely lose business if the roads are of poor quality:
<ul type="disc">
<li>A comprehensive 2002 Transportation Research Board report on the adequacy of U.S. freight movement capabilities looked at a region’s relative ability to provide a transportation system that minimizes traffic congestion and provides reliable freight movement. This factor alone can have a significant impact on job creation or loss to other areas.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Some production will move from the United States to other countries if congestion costs cause the United States to lose comparative advantage in some industries.</li>
</ul>
Such problems with roads, and their negative economic impact, are hardly limited to Virginia. Ohio, a crossroads state with about 65 percent of all U.S. manufacturing capacity within 600 miles of its borders (and 50 percent of population, the consumers of that manufacturing) has just as many challenges to its infrastructure as Virginia and many other states, according to data compiled by AASHTO, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The organization details how several states claim road quality is integral to their economic development:
<ul type="disc">
<li>California frequently ties transportation quality to “job creation and a positive impact on an average person’s daily life.”</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Minnesota promotes highway improvement and economic development with the tagline “Our future is riding on it.”</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Utah’s Chamber of Commerce in 2009 officially says, “A safe and efficient transportation system is foundational for Utah’s economic vitality, quality of life and growth.”</li>
</ul>
Almost all states face a Catch-22, however. Given the aging nature of the nation’s highways – and cash-strapped maintenance budgets from local, state and federal coffers due to the economic recession – how can states and local municipalities promote commerce in their jurisdictions when their roads are crumbling? Can this bad convergence of factors be averted?
Perhaps. Pavement preservation is one route. For every dollar spent on fixing small problems before they get bigger, between $6 and $7 are saved that would be spent on reconstruction, but how exactly does that happen?
Pavement preservation – the affordable way to keep economies moving 
The U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), a division of the Department of Transportation, takes a strong position on why highways need to be preserved.
“The Interstate Highway System cost more than $129 billion to construct,” notes Robert M. Davies and Jim Sorenson, both construction and preservation engineers in the FHWA’s Office of Asset Management. “The cost to construct and maintain the more than 6 million kilometers (3.73 million miles) represent one of the nation’s largest infrastructure investments in our country’s history. Roads and streets are just that – an investment.”
Davies and Sorenson go on to say, “If we take a proactive approach in maintaining our existing highways, we can reduce costly, time-consuming rehabilitation and reconstruction and the associated traffic disruptions.”
Pavement preservation advocates tell us that best practices involves a variety of surface treatments that extend a road’s service life. These include:
<ul type="disc">
<li>Fog seals</li>
<li>Slurry seals</li>
<li>Chip seals</li>
<li>Cape seals</li>
<li>Sand seals</li>
<li>Rejuvenators</li>
<li>Micro-surfacing</li>
<li>Thin lift overlays</li>
<li>High-quality pothole repair</li>
<li>Crack sealing</li>
<li>Portland cement concrete joint sealing</li>
<li>Dowel-bar retrofit</li>
<li>Full and partial-depth concrete pavement repair</li>
<li>Milling and grinding</li>
</ul>
All of these are most effective when applied on a timely basis, before small cracks grow larger. For example, if any of the four indicators of road deterioration in a flexible pavement surface are present – presence of potholes, cracks, ruts or deformation – it is a trigger to use one or several methods for correcting the problem.
The most familiar pavement deterioration of course is potholes. Found in arctic and tropical climates alike, a pothole is a late-stage problem that begins with a simple crack that allows water accumulation under the surface of the road. If a fog or slurry seal was not applied in time, the pothole can still be fixed with hot or cold asphalt filler. Hot asphalt treatments are historically more common, yet incur expensive labor costs and are relatively ineffective over time. Cold asphalt treatments apply advanced technologies that are both easier to use and more effective, lasting several years after application. This is a marked improvement over hot asphalt treatments, which can deteriorate after only a few weeks in some circumstances.
Other successes with pavement preservation span the country:
<ul type="disc">
<li>Minnesota’s Department of Transportation (MDOT) uses mobile laser measuring technology to identify where repairs are needed. Other states that use similar technology are Rhode Island, Maryland and Oregon.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Washington State employs dowel-bar retrofits in aging concrete, which WDOT officials believe can add 10 to 15 years of use to 30-year-old concrete pavement.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Indiana DOT completed major pavement preservation projects on two interstate highways near the Indianapolis Speedway in less than two months each. To do this, they closed each highway completely – after an extensive education effort on the value of the approach – and collectively saved motorists and trucking companies about $60 million by when completing both projects a month in advance.</li>
</ul>
As with anything involving public funding, politics will always play a role in how efforts such as these move forward. As Utah’s former state House Speaker Greg Curtis once said when comparing new highway construction versus pavement preservation projects, there is no “glamour or ribbon-cutting” when potholes are filled or cracks are sealed. If only there were a visual way to demonstrate the billions of dollars those measures can save.
General wear and tear will ultimately destroy every road, just like life-long fitness buffs’ cardiovascular systems will eventually give out in old age. But with creative thinking, new technologies and communications that effectively sell the idea of the smart money in pavement preservation, it may be possible to put off such a day decades into the future.

Economic Dependence On Good Roads

The problem is all the old streets and highways. But thanks to the SHRP program, better fixes are here.
Man first went to the moon 40 years ago, and today Space Shuttle flights are commonplace. Scientists are beginning to grow spare body parts from stem cells, and the computing power packed into our cell phones continues to evolve at a dizzying pace.
So why are there so many problems with roads and highways? Potholes stretch from Honolulu to Chicago to Nashville and Miami, and the problem only seems to get worse. Can’t we figure out how to make better pavement?
Actually, the roads being built today are better than ever. Human nature recalls the bad potholes, ruts, seams and construction tie-ups that punctuate our travels, but when traveling on good, nicely-paved highways and byways – which are either new or older and well-constructed and maintained – we might just remember the scenery or something else.
Going back a bit further, before the federal highway system was authorized and funded by Congress in 1956, roads were far more dangerous. The national fatality rate was 6.05 deaths per 100 million miles traveled. Today on the nation’s interstates it is 0.8 deaths. Factoring in secondary roads, that number goes up to 1.46 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, but this is still a vast improvement. This has come about through not only safer cars, but also technological advances in road design and maintenance that include wider shoulders, better guardrails, “breakaway” signposts and utility poles, improved signs and pavement markings, pavement that is slid-resistant, and clearer sight lines for drivers.
The problem is that every inch of America’s four million miles or highways, roads and streets, and 660,000 bridges, are aging. Most were built in a frenzy of construction after the passage of the Interstate Highway Act during the 1950s, in the post-World War II era when mobilization of the masses was happening on a huge scale. Over the years, more than $129 billion have spent on construction alone, an investment never questioned because of its vital importance to the economy, national defense and the American way of life.
That was a full fifty years ago for the first generation of roads, which presents a very specific problem: Roads are built to last about 50 years. Even under the best conditions, these roads are getting older, even while the population is concurrently growing and increasingly mobile. Old roads plus more traffic equals road deterioration at an accelerating rate.
Clearly, road engineers and the research and development people who came up with safer road features have a Herculean task in front of them where it comes to pavement longevity. How do they make pavement more resilient? How can our roads be made to last longer and be less costly?
Congress got involved – and it worked! 
Because of the investment that federal, state and local governments have made in roads – and the absolute dependence of commerce, safety and national security in a functioning highway system – a great deal of resources and study have gone into road building and maintenance.
In other words, the government agencies that build and maintain the roads are just as frustrated as everyone else with pavement deterioration.
<blockquote>In 1987, Congress funded a five-year, $150 million research program that focused on improvement of the nation’s highways in terms of performance, durability, safety and efficiency.</blockquote>
In 1987, Congress funded a five-year, $150 million research program that focused on improvement of the nation’s highways in terms of performance, durability, safety and efficiency. Officially known as the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Act, it established the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP, called “sharp”). The program dissects the roads we travel on and what improves the quality of our ride in four essential areas:
Concrete and structures: How best to mix, build, assess, protect and rehabilitate existing concrete roads and bridges.
Asphalt: Identify new approaches to asphalt. Roads made of asphalt are traditionally built with a hot asphalt mix, yet good performance over time was sporadic while maintenance is costly, unwieldy and disruptive.
Highway operations: Improve snow and ice control, find better ways to do preservation work and increase work zone safety.
Pavement performance/The Long Term Pavement Performance Program (LTPP): This ultimately became a 20-year study of 2000 test sections of American and Canadian roads, which identified best practices in building and maintaining pavement.
From the SHRP program, more than 100 new products were identified as furthering pavement performance. A full third of the budget ($53 million) was spent on asphalt research – and for good reason. Asphalt is the predominant building material in roads. It is easier to put down than concrete, and the raw materials – largely aggregates of stone, sand and gravel, and petroleum byproducts – are readily available. About 4000 asphalt mixing plants across the country use the traditional hot mix method, the nature of which forces construction and repair work to be completed within a window of hours, before the mix cools.
What came of the asphalt research in the SHRP program was something called Superpave (Superior Performing Asphalt Pavements). Overall, Superpave is an asphalt mix-design process that accounts for the differences in local conditions found in, for example, Minneapolis versus Miami. It prescribes an ideal asphalt binder, also known as the PG asphalt binder specification, which more accurately addresses conditions where a road is built. This includes factors of climate and use, the latter of which includes how physical properties of the road (such as viscosity) age, how the road deforms (or doesn’t) to form ruts or cracks, and the road’s relatively volatility (flammability).
One researcher who worked on the Superpave program, Mike Anderson, associate director of research at the Asphalt Institute (Lexington, KY), says, “Within volumetric mix design, materials selection and development of aggregate structure are vital. Once these are set, the determination of binder content and moisture-sensitivity just flow from the other conditions.” Key characteristics of Superpave mixes are:
<ul type="disc">
<li>Clean and angular aggregate</li>
<li>Controls on the amount of rounded, natural sand in a mix that could lead to instability; the Superpave mix is coarser than conventional mix.</li>
<li>Binder selection according to local weather data, physical property tests and other guidelines.</li>
<li>Mix according to a road’s known or anticipated traffic levels, defined in the SHRP program according to three degrees of road use (light, medium and heavy).</li>
</ul>
Cold mix asphalt has been a Holy Grail of pavement research, in part because its application can reduce many of logistical issues in new construction and, especially, pavement preservation and reactive pothole repair. Traditional hot-mix asphalt can cool in a matter of hours, from plant to roadwork, thus requiring work crews to schedule around the temperature of the mix, not the work itself. Performance of hot mix asphalt in, say, a spot pothole repair is notoriously dismal as well, yielding poor road conditions even after motorists endure traffic delays when road repair crews block lanes.
Improvements like this are never as exciting as a Shuttle launch. Heck – the opening of a new highway is guaranteed to get more press than a road repair that simply doesn’t disintegrate over a few decades.
But when the ride is smoother, when there are fewer repair crew traffic delays, and when long-term maintenance costs come in under budget, the news can’t get better for motorists and taxpayers.

Why Can't They Make Better Roads?

Introduction:
If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.  It’s a popular cliche that, in the current economic climate especially, holds significant bearing on how people spend their money.  In an attempt to stretch dollars already spent, there is a tendency to postpone maintenance until the last possible moment.  For example, a car driving down the road with squeaking brakes.  So long as they aren’t grinding, the driver is content wearing the pads right down to the rotors.  Or the person with a toothache that puts off seeing a dentist until it is unbearable.  Even though the tooth is uncomfortable, so long as it’s tolerable, it can wait.  While the subjects in these hypothetical situations can keep a few extra bucks in their pockets for the time being, the implications of putting off such issues can be much more expensive than adhering to a proactive, routine maintenance approach.  Eventually, the driver with worn brake pads will begin to wear into his rotors, requiring immediate repairs costing twice as much as brake pads alone.  The person suffering from a toothache will eventually find out what was initially a simple filling procedure now requires a more expensive root canal.  In retrospect, an investment at the first sign of deterioration would have been much cheaper, not to mention less painful. 
The same principle applies to road maintenance.  As much as commuters are annoyed by poor roads, most loathe infinitely more the construction induced traffic jam.  What most commuters don’t take into consideration is the sheer size of the road systems they use every day.  The United States has 3.95 million miles of public roads, with an estimated worth of a massive $1.75 trillion.  Traditionally, a "worst-first" approach has been applied to pavement maintenance.  Referred to as reactive maintenance, this philosophy prescribes to fixing roads once significant structural damage has already been incurred.  The end result necessitates more severe rehabilitation projects that are expensive, cause significant traffic delays, and unsafe road conditions prior to completing such repairs. 
There is, however, a proactive solution to maintaining roads: Pavement preservation.  The National Center for Pavement Prevention defines pavement preservation as "a cost-effective set of practices that extend pavement life and improve safety and motorist satisfaction while saving public tax dollars."  Essentially, a pavement preservation program seeks to create a system of implementing relatively small scale repairs on roads prior to structural degradation to avoid the necessity of full blown road reconstruction.  Successful pavement preservation will result in long term savings, reduced traffic congestion, and safer roads.  This essay will discuss the fundamentals of pavement preservation, the techniques used for pavement preservation, and discussion of current pavement preservation practices; finally, an objective analysis of the benefits and criticisms will lead to a conclusion.
Pavement Preservation Fundamentals: 
While the techniques of pavement preservation are pivotal, as will be discussed in the following section, for any pavement preservation program to succeed there are several philosophical and strategic elements that must be determined prior to taking any maintenance measures.  First, and foremost, is embracing the philosophy of pavement preservation; the traditional mentality of "worst-first" repairs needs to be replaced with one of prolonging the investments already made to road systems.  Pavement preservation needs to be seen as a long term process.  A short term analysis may suggest that preservation based maintenance is an unnecessary expenditure, but in the long run up to six dollars can be saved for every one dollar put into pavement preservation, a significant amount considering the cost of maintaining road ways. 
Once the philosophy of pavement preservation is embodied, strategies must be developed to execute a successful preservation program, certain questions must be answered: How can dedicated funding be secured?  How can quantifiable data be collected to both account for present road conditions and to monitor the program’s success?  How and when should actions be taken to efficiently prolong the life of the current road systems?  Unfortunately, there are no universal responses to any of these questions, they are unique to every individual road management agency; there are, however, some basic points to consider when making these decisions.
<blockquote>Without dedicated funding, pavement preservation projects frequently get pushed to the last tier of priority, and a variety of factors from backed up "worst-first" repairs to severe weather can be enough to sabotage an entire pavement preservation program.</blockquote>
First, there is a difference between funding and dedicated funding.  Without dedicated funding, pavement preservation projects frequently get pushed to the last tier of priority, and a variety of factors from backed up "worst-first" repairs to severe weather can be enough to sabotage an entire pavement preservation program.  A common phrase when discussing pavement preservation is "applying the right treatment to the right pavement at the right time," and if preservation projects are delayed, roads can incur structural damage in that time, making any attempt to preserve the road obsolete.  This being said, finding ways to eliminate competition for funds is essential to ensuring proactive measures. 
Data collection and management is also crucial to a successful pavement preservation program.  Data provides a quantifiable means of assessing road ways and the preservation program as a whole.  Again, the means of collecting such data is in the hands of the agencies managing the roads, but the end objective is simple: Provide precise and unbiased information that can be used to determine when preservation measures should be taken and how effective previous maintenance actions were.  There are various indexes that can be used to quantify road conditions, including the Pavement Condition Index (PCI, measured visually on a scale from 0 to 100), the Present Serviceability Rating (PSR, measured by quality of ride on a scale from 0 to 5), and the International Roughness Index (IRI, measured by the vertical deviation of a vehicles suspension in units of millimeters per meter).  Regardless of what method is used to quantify data, it is important to be consistent and use it effectively. 
Finally, there is determining where and when to implement pavement preservation techniques.  Successful pavement preservation programs need to be efficient and effective.  Again, the saying about the right treatment, the right pavement, the right time has significant value.  Maintenance to prolong road life must be executed with precise timing.  As mentioned before, putting off maintenance to preserve road ways can lead to a "too little, too late" situation; once the structural integrity of a road is compromised, reactive maintenance is necessary.  Similarly, executing preservation techniques too early will result in a waste of time, money, and resources, all of which could have been used for a more appropriate preservation project.  Taking these two points in to consideration, there is a specific window of time when preservation techniques are effective and efficient.  By identifying when such a time span will exist on specific road segments, road management agencies can coordinate and facilitate several preservation projects, optimizing their production factors, and, sequentially, optimizing their pavement preservation program.
Pavement Preservation Techniques 
The maintenance techniques used for pavement preservation are unique from reactive maintenance in that they are significantly smaller scale projects, focusing primarily on a road’s surface rather than structure.  These techniques prolong the life of road ways by addressing surface imperfections before they are allowed to deteriorate the subsurface structure of the road.  Even though there is no way to make pavement last forever, addressing minor issues significantly reduces the wear on the road’s structure.  The maintenance procedures used for pavement preservation are formally categorized into three categories: Routine maintenance, preventive maintenance, and minor rehabilitation.  Though the actual techniques that fall into each specific category are different, their objectives are the same; they attempt to make existing road systems last as long as possible. 
As defined by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), routine maintenance "consists of work that is planned and performed on a routine basis to maintain and preserve the condition of the highway system or to respond to specific conditions and events that restore the highway system to an adequate level of service."  As the name implies, routine maintenance are tasks that are planned and performed on a regular basis.  These various maintenance techniques include surface cleaning and clearing of debris, maintaining lane lines and other various pavement markings, and minor surface repairs such as filling cracks, patching potholes, or small scale overlays.  While not all routine maintenance techniques are strictly considered to be a part of pavement preservation, they will fall into this category when used to specifically to prolong the life of a road. 
Preventive maintenance is the most intuitive component of pavement preservation.  It is defined, again by the AASHTO, as "a planned strategy of cost-effective treatments to an existing roadway system and its appurtenances that preserve the system, retards future deterioration, and maintains or improves the functional condition of the system."  These techniques are the primary tools used for pavement preservation.  They include tasks that are specifically implemented with the intentions of protecting the investment made in already constructed roads by addressing surface flaws that threaten to jeopardize the structural integrity of the subsurface, essentially preventing reactive maintenance.  Preventive maintenance includes multitude of procedures, including sealing cracks, chips, or joints, slurry seals, and thin asphalt overlays.  In short, preventative maintenance aims to address problems as they form so that minimal input of time, money, and resources can be used to prevent a larger problem in the future. 
Minor rehabilitation is a subset of a more general category of maintenance called pavement rehabilitation.  Pavement rehabilitation is defined by the AASHTO as "structural enhancements that extend the service life of an existing pavement and/or improve its load carrying capacity."   The distinction between minor and major rehabilitation is fairly straightforward; minor rehabilitation does not involve structural enhancements, as opposed to major rehabilitation.  Minor rehabilitation is often more drastic from preventive maintenance, frequently addressing a more deteriorated surface, however, since it does not involve repairs to the structure and instead aims to prevent structural damage, it is classified as an element of pavement preservation.  Restoration treatments and larger scale overlays fall into the classification of minor rehabilitation.
Current Pavement Preservation Practices 
As long ago as 1997, the AASHTO released a survey revealing that most state highway agencies embraced the notion of pavement preservation.  As nearly half of the interstate system at the time was considered to be in sub par condition, it is no surprise that the principles of pavement preservation began to be taken more seriously as a practical solution to the always deteriorating highway system.  Several states went on to implement such a plan, with some of the most successful being California, Georgia, Michigan, and Texas.  While the benefits were not noticeable immediately in the short term, in time the results of utilizing a pavement preservation program proved quite favorable. 
These states realized a variety of benefits, as reported in a 2000 publication by the Federal Highway Administration.  Texas found it to be comparatively inexpensive and gradually improving the overall status of their road systems.  Georgia also noted an improvement throughout their collective highway systems and also found that the transition from reactive maintenance to preservation projects was fairly seamless, hassle free, and had little effect on their ability to tend to larger scale repairs.  California estimated that they were getting about five to seven additional years of usage out of their already existing highways.  Michigan concluded that preventive maintenance was nearly 14 times cheaper than reactive maintenance per lane-mile; they figured, in eight years of practicing pavement preservation, they had saved in excess of $700 million in comparison to using reactive maintenance. 
As pavement preservation programs are adopted by new agencies and refined by those already using such programs, there is increasing demand for better materials with more efficiency, versatility, and eco-friendly.  As both road management agencies and material manufacturers continue to improve, so too will the benefits of pavement preservation.
Criticisms and Conclusion 
As established by the reports of agencies using pavement preservation programs, the advantages of a proactive, preventative approach to road maintenance has proven to be as successful in practice as it is in theory.  It costs less, produces less traffic congestion, and makes roads safer longer.  It is a curious concept that such a philosophy is not universally embraced.  While the premise of pavement preservation maybe strike some as straightforward and logical, there are certain criticisms that stand in the way of a universal acceptance of the concept.  The public may have difficulty understanding why they are waiting in traffic while a construction crew repairs a relatively small imperfection.  The layman will not understand the consequences of allowing what he deems a superficial crack in the road go unattended to.  Also, like any change in an organization, accepting change is difficult.  Convincing every component of an agency, from the stakeholders to the work crews, that they need to change their ways poses the epic task of shifting paradigms.  Finally, the nature of the research data used to assess the performance of a pavement preservation program is not concrete.  For example, asserting the financial benefits of a preservation approach over a reactive approach requires that a hypothetical projection be made for how maintaining a reactive approach "could" have been.  Certainly historical figures or comparisons to similar systems could be referenced, but ultimately, because of the unique circumstances of every agency, there can be no true comparison without speculation. 
Still, the enticing elements of a pavement preservation program exist.  Despite criticisms, several road management agencies have implemented a preventative approach with great success.  Research surveys show an increase in the general public to support a more financially sound model, as opposed to the "worst-first" model.  As the concept of pavement preservation is better understood, the more and more support it receives.  While states like Texas, Georgia, California, and Michigan reap the benefits, others continue to implement dated models of reactive maintenance.  Taking all of this into account, there is one question that needs to be answered: Aren’t the long term benefits of pavement preservation worth the investment in being proactive? 
References 
The National Center For Pavement Preservation 
<a href="http://www.pavementpreservation.org/">http://www.pavementpreservation.org/</a>
Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center 
Article: Pavement Preservation: Preserving Our Investment in Highways 
<a href="http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/jan00/pavement.htm">http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/jan00/pavement.htm</a>
Washington State Department of Transportation 
Article: Pavement Evaluation – Roughness 
<a href="http://training.ce.washington.edu/wsdot/Modules/09_pavement_evaluation/09-2_body.htm">http://training.ce.washington.edu/wsdot/Modules/09_pavement_evaluation/09-2_body.htm</a>
US Department of Transportation – Federal Highway Administration 
Memo: Pavement Preservation Definitions 
<a href="http://www.pavementpreservation.org/library/getfile.php?journal_id=482">http://www.pavementpreservation.org/library/getfile.php?journal_id=482</a>
Foundation for Pavement Preservation 
Article: Pavement Preventive Maintenance Guidelines 
<a href="http://www.fp2.org/pdffiles/PavPrevMainGuides.pdf">http://www.fp2.org/pdffiles/PavPrevMainGuides.pdf</a>

Pavement Preservation: A Proactive Approach to Road Repairs

The Pavement Condition Index is a numerical index between 0 and 100 and is used to indicate the condition of a roadway. It is widely used in transportation civil engineering. It is a statistical measure and requires manual survey of the pavement.
The Pavement Condition Index (PCI), developed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, is based on a visual survey of the pavement and a numerical value between 0 and 100 defines the condition with 100 representing an excellent pavement. The process involves the following steps:
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavement_Condition_Index" target="_blank">Click here to learn more</a>

Pavement Condition Index

<h3>Debunking 3 of the most common excuses to not address a pothole problem</h3>
Introduction:
We’ve all seen them, we all hate them, and we all know the damage they can do. Still, potholes all too often are left unattended, leaving commuters vulnerable to serious damages, and in turn, serious repair costs. Below are three of the most common excuses to not address pothole problems. All of the scenarios below are hypothetical, but are entirely plausible. Whether it involves repairing the pothole yourself or making a simple phone call to report the problem, the effort it takes to see that a pothole is addressed is almost always more efficient than the alternative. 
Excuse 1: It’s not on my property, it’s not my problem!
Julie is a business consultant, and as such she spends time driving all over the metropolitan area of Detroit. One day she was driving home from a new client’s office and taking a route she’d never taken before. As she was accelerating on to a highway, she struck a large pothole on the ramp. As her GPS dislodged from the windshield and her briefcase spilled all over the floor, she swerved nearly avoiding an accident. She cursed, but didn’t think twice about it because she is a busy woman, and, well, it wasn’t her problem.
Unfortunately for Julie, it was about to become her problem. The next day she was driving home from the same client’s office. Merging onto the same highway deeply engaged in a cellphone conversation, she ran into the same pothole again. This time, her briefcase toppling over was the least of her problems. Her car began to thud with every turn of her tires and sparks flew up into the foreground of her rear view mirrors. She immediately pulled over and called a tow truck to bring her car to the dealership.
By about the same time the next day, this time in her rental car, she received a call from the car dealer explaining a damaged tire, rim, and bumper would need to be replaced, costing several hundreds of dollars. Outraged about the damage, Julie called the city, placing the blame on them for not properly maintaining the roads. Julie argued that it was the second time she hit the pothole and that the damage was probably cumulative, so there was no way she should be liable. The representative of the city asked her then, “Why didn’t you report the pothole the first time?” Much to Julie’s dismay, the city told her they can only reimburse pothole victims of already reported potholes.
* * * * *
While some cities will assume responsibility for pothole damage and reimburse the victim, there are almost always stipulations for such a situation. First and foremost, a city willing to reimburse expenses of pothole damage almost always need to be aware of the pothole prior to the damage occurring. In other words, if a pothole goes unreported, the city responsible for maintaining the road is never made aware it even exists, thus will not assume responsibility. In addition, there is often a certain time requirement for the pothole to go unattended before it becomes a liability to the city, usually a couple of weeks. This means that a reported pothole must be repaired within that time, or it becomes a liability of the city. If damages are incurred outside of this time window, then the city would become responsible.
<blockquote>Even if the city fails to repair the pothole in a timely manner, simply having it be reported is often enough to make drivers not directly responsible for pothole damage, or the repair fees.</blockquote>
Just because a pothole isn’t on your property doesn’t mean it’s not your problem. While you might not be directly responsible for doing the repair yourself, reporting potholes means that you, and the drivers around you, will be protected in the future. Even if the city fails to repair the pothole in a timely manner, simply having it be reported is often enough to make drivers not directly responsible for pothole damage, or the repair fees. Overall, a simple phone call reporting a pothole could save you or one of your fellow drivers from paying later.
Excuse 2: Hey, I know how to avoid it!
Frank owns a family grocery store. The store is as much of a historical landmark as it is the premier grocer of the small town; this being said, the old building and lot had quite a bit of wear. There are two entrances to the lot, one in the front and one in the back. Since most people who visit Frank’s grocery store use the front entrance, it is well maintained; the back entrance, however, is used mostly by employees and has several, large potholes. Frank hasn’t repaired the back entrance in years, because, “Anyone who would use it would know how to avoid the potholes.”
While Frank didn’t have many problems for several years with the situation, it only took one oblivious customer to spark a slew of problems for him and his grocery store. One day, a visitor to the small town decided to make a stop at Frank’s grocery store. Not familiar with the area, he accidentally drove by the main entrance. Being a quick thinker, the visitor turned onto the first side street he saw and followed it to the back of the store. Instead of turning around and entering where everyone else in the town would, he decided to enter through the back. Too busy being proud of his navigational achievement, he did not notice the unmarked potholes. As he entered the lot, he was greeted with a loud thud, and a flat tire. Further inspection found that he had also bent the rim, and so the entire wheel needed replacement.
Furious that his vacation had been put on hold, the visitor found the owner of the store, Frank, and sought reparations. Frank was sincerely apologetic, but with current economic conditions, he didn’t have the money to pay for the repairs out of his pocket. He explained to the visitor that no one in town uses the rear entrance and that he was really sorry, but there was nothing he could do. Still steaming over the situation, the visitor put on his spare tire and drove off.
Unfortunately for Frank, a few days later he received a letter from the visitor’s lawyer threatening a civil suit over the incident.
* * * * *
While Frank was sincere and sympathetic to the issue, the fact remained that he was openly aware of the potholes, but made a conscious decision to neither mark nor repair them. It was clear to everyone in the town that the potholes existed, though it never ceased to be a liability to Frank. Not realizing this, his “hope for the best” attitude about it landed him in a bit of legal trouble. Had the potholes been marked then repaired, this wouldn’t have turned into a legal issue. Not having much of a case, Frank would have no choice but to settle with the visitor. Instead of fixing the problem, which would only take a couple of bags of cold mix asphalt and an hour or two of his time, he ended up footing the bill for someone’s broken wheel, not to mention having to do the repair afterward, anyway. Ultimately, the “good faith” approach Frank took turned out to be more expensive to him in the long run because of the negligent maintenance of his store’s property.
Excuse 3: It’s way too expensive and will take way too long!
Celia is an elderly woman who lives by herself on a large lot in a rural area. While she remains active and keeps her house in order, since her husband’s passing, there have arose some maintenance issues, including a few potholes on the narrow, quarter mile drive to her house. Her son, Steven, makes a point to visit her at least once a week, and he makes sure to keep up the areas of the large lot he knows his mother can’t do on her own. When he noticed the potholes forming, he made sure to mention it to his mother, and while she thought it needed to be fixed eventually, money is an issue for her, and she was convinced she couldn’t afford the repair, even with her son doing the labor for free. Week in and week out, when Steven came to visit he would mention the potholes, and week in and week out, Celia would tell him the same thing, “It will be too expensive!”
Since neither of them actually knew the cost of repairing a pothole, that conclusion stood every time it came up, until one day Steven ran into one of the potholes, which at this point had grown much larger. Finally, he told his mother that he would pay for the repair before one of them did some serious damage. Much to Steven’s surprise, after a little research, he found the materials that best suited his job, a cold mix asphalt, were more than reasonably priced. So Stephen went to his local hardware store and picked up a few bags of EZ STREET cold mix asphalt.
Now that he had the materials, he just needed to find the time to work it into his exhausting 60 hour work week. Since he was so busy, and had only a couple of vacation days left, he kept putting it off. Like most uneducated handymen, reading the directions seemed to be the “easy way out”, and in reality, Stephen had no idea how long it would really take.
Finally Steven took a sick day on a Friday, of which he planned on dedicating in full to repairing his mother’s drive. He showed up at her house with all of the bags of EZ STREET cold mix and the tools the store clerk told him he would need. Realizing he wasn’t really sure what, exactly, he was supposed to do at this point, he read the package for instructions. This turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Steven went to work and ended up patching all of the several potholes before Celia had lunch on the table. Even more of a delight to Steven, the <a href="http://www.ezstreetasphalt.com">EZ STREET cold mix</a> resulted in a permanent fix that was ready for traffic instantly. In the end, Steven made his mother happy, and surprised himself at how handy he really could be.
* * * * *
While the case of Celia and Steven didn’t need to result in a disaster for them to address their pothole repairs, their ignorance to the repairing process prevented them from realizing how quick, easy, and inexpensive it really was. Fortunately for them, they were able to avoid a crisis by realizing that it needed to be fixed, no matter what it was going to take. Even more fortunate for them was the fact that it wouldn’t take much in money, time, or effort.
The beauty of EZ STREET cold mix asphalt is its ability to permanently and instantly fix a pothole without much money, time, or effort. A 35 pound bag of EZ STREET cold mix asphalt is only about $20.00 (USD) at a local hardware store, requires less than an hour to lay, and can be done by nearly anyone with tools that are probably already in the garage. If money or time are a concern with putting off a pothole repair, behold the ease and effectiveness of EZ STREET cold mix asphalt.

Pay now or Really pay later

Yes, it's hard to laugh when you're faced with a car repair bill of $400 caused by a surprise pothole. Some people even suffer physical injuries from hitting a street crater, so of course no one is making light of that. But potholes are inevitable. Laugh we must.
Think back to your own last pothole moment. If you were talking on the phone when you hit or fell into an asphalt crevice, you might have let fly some unfortunate words that were inappropriate to the conversation. An F-bomb in range of your mother-in-law or a client leaves its own lingering injuries.
But tragedy + time = comedy. And it takes a lot less time when the tragedy happens to other people.
It's pretty much like watching someone you don't know slip on ice. Or pratfalls in the style of The Three Stooges, Lucy and Ethel, Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller. You laugh at their expense and feel no guilt.
This article is dedicated to the delicious sense of TNMT: that's not me there.
Everyone has to admit to having a certain degree of Schadenfreude, that quintessentially German invention of joy in the folly of others. We all experience this because we've all hit a few bumps in the road ourselves. Most of us emerge alive if not a bit rattled. We know that these hapless souls who are experiencing gaping holes on highways will get through it. Maybe they'll laugh about it too, one day.
Here is a potpourri of pothole mirth. Try to feel just a little bad about how much you enjoy it.
The basic online pothole video
First they invented webcams, then came the inevitable drivers-in-distress-set-to-ironic-music videos. Just how much you enjoy seeing this says something about the kind of person you are:
<a href="http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=pothole+from+hell&www_google_domain=www.google.com&hl=en&emb=0&aq=2&oq=pothole+#" target="_blank">Basic online pothole video</a>
Potholes in California a political career terminator?
While those of us living in northern, snow-slammed climates always thought that potholes are solely the result of road salt and freeze-thaw cycles, in fact the Golden State gets its own share of crumbling pavement (potholes are disintegrating roads caused by moisture and neglect due to inadequate road repair funding). Here's Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" take on controversy around Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's pothole publicity stunt (Samantha Bee interviews a critic whose real name is Bump):
<a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=124476&title=The-Hole-Truth" target="_blank">The Hole Truth</a>
Chicago pothole disables a city garbage truck
Another myth shattered: We tend to think the larger the vehicle, the more resilient it is to bumpy roads and other assaults of the highways. We need to think again. A City of Chicago garbage truck suffered two wrecked rear axles from hitting a single, take-no-prisoners pothole – and made good TV copy as the blue behemoth sat crumpled in the street:
<a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/26926/wrecked-sneak-peak" target="_blank">Wrecked</a>
But small cars not so smart, either
Still, Slate.com's Seth Stevenson wouldn't recommend the Smart Fortwo car for Chicago or any other city with significant pothole problems (make that, "all cities"). Here's what he <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2197438/" target="_blank">wrote</a> in August 2008:
"If there's a drawback to the Fortwo's ride, it's the bumpy suspension. You can feel every jolt—to the point that you'll start grimacing in anticipation of the potholes up ahead. Perhaps this is a consequence of the car's small wheelbase. Or it may be part of the trade-off involved in engineering the Fortwo's responsive steering. (With its teeny footprint, zippy handling, and quick acceleration, the Fortwo may be the greatest car ever for slaloming recklessly between the cement pillars of an empty underground parking garage. I'm just guessing.)"
We add the slaloming feature helps avoid the potholes. Even if that technique is misinterpreted by police in some cities …
<blockquote>A hapless driver was pulled over for erratic driving, which she (convincingly to me) says was all about avoiding potholes. This is a problem multiplied many times over, worldwide, to be sure. But seriously KMBC-TV, do you routinely report traffic tickets on the evening news?</blockquote>
Life's not fair in Kansas City
A hapless driver was pulled over for erratic driving, which she (convincingly to me) says was all about avoiding potholes. This is a problem multiplied many times over, worldwide, to be sure. But seriously KMBC-TV, do you routinely report traffic tickets on the evening news?
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foxIJA1hfEQ" target="_blank">Driver Ticketed After Avoiding Potholes</a>
I half expected The Onion TV news logo at the end. At least it's nice to see something other than murder and mayhem in the Show Me State.
Across the border, in Kansas, there's a bit more of a take-charge attitude. (Do they say that on their license plates?)
Topeka: Fix our streets campaign ("Pothole Syndrome")
You gotta love political ads that can make you laugh. Given the amount of television time given to campaigns in election years, it certainly makes for better entertainment than learning about the dark, scary secrets of a candidate's opposition. In fact, this ad accomplishes the nearly impossible – it makes a pothole seem funny yet worth eliminating:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7_BAKYEoHY" target="_blank">Pothole Syndrome</a>
The same ad campaign takes a copy-free classical music route with this ad titled "Topeka Pothole Suite." Watch it and then replay with your eyes closed; it's an exercise in ignoring a problem:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6K4ypVNfcI&feature=related" target="_blank">Topeka Pothole Suite</a>
When it comes to potholes, there's an app for that! 
The power of crowd sourcing has come to the battle against potholes. In Boston, upstart city hall staffers are being credited with setting up a system that allows people with iPhones to snap and send photos of potholes and other municipal nuisances with a request to fix it.
<a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/specials/013009_pothole/" target="_blank">Boston.com</a>
Take a look at that map. If it were me running the Boston pothole department, this would be a horrible way to start each day. But this leaves a lingering question: Why is there an apparent lack of pothole problems in Dover? Or do Doverians simply not have iPhones? Hmmm.
Potholes Honolulu
Reportedly, tropical rains "pelt and pummel" roadways in paradise, as Hawaii and Honolulu in particular have some of the most potholed streets in the country. The ever-helpful eHow website <a href="http://www.ehow.com/how_4728287_file-pothole-damage-claim-honolulu.html" target="_blank">instructs drivers</a> on how to pursue compensation from the city for damages caused to their vehicles from a pothole. On the surface, it looks easy:
Step 1: Record the pothole location, with the exact address.
Step 2: Take a photograph of the pothole and any damage it caused your vehicle.
Step 3: Obtain witness information and make a copy of a police report, if applicable.
Step 4: Determine if your accident occurred on a state or city roadway. State roadways are excluded from claims to the city and include H-1, H-2, H-3, Kahekili, Kalaniana'ole, Pali, Likelike, Kamehameha, Nimitz, and Ala Moana.
Step 5: Call (808) 523-4115 and request a claim form from the Department of Accounting and General Services.
Step 6: Perform repairs, being sure to obtain receipts for all work done on your vehicle.
Step 7: Fill out the form, including your contact information and the date, time and location of the incident. Include with your claim all report and receipt copies and send to DAGS, Kalanimoku Building, 1151 Punchbowl Street, Honolulu, HI 96813.
Step 8: Wait up to three months while a decision is made on your claim.
Easy, right? This process is pretty much standard operating procedure in cities everywhere. But let's consider the real life experience of your average hard-working Hawaiian (when not surfing, luau-ing or tending to pineapple crops):
Step 1: Record the exact address? Do potholes have addresses now, and if so, why not use their junk mail to fill the holes?
Step 2: The assumption is that everyone has a camera on them when driving. Clearly, all Japanese tourists do. But I have to think about my own mother who is still learning to use her newfangled, stripped down-cell phone designed for senior citizens. No iPhoto for her. And since Kodak has discontinued selling 35 mm camera film, she doesn't have a functioning camera either. Note to mom: next time you go on an Hawaiian cruise, stay on the boat.
Step 3: Witnesses? Aren't they the people swerving to avoid hitting you in your moment of pothole impact? If a witness lives or works near the pothole, they might be helpful. Unless they they're the narcissistic type for whom television shows, YouTube or just having a life is more interesting than watching traffic.
Step 4: Hawaii has a state roadway named Kalaniana'ole? Aside from the fact it sounds like something you'd order at a Taco Bell, one has to be thankful it's excluded from damage coverage. Sure, you're SOL on paying for that broken wheel rim, but at least you don't have to take a spelling test in front of a city bureaucrat.
Steps 5 and 7: Call the city for hardcopy forms; e-mails and online forms are simply not for everyone. And be sure to drive (on your broken wheel rims) to the drug store where they can print that digital photo that you need to submit.
Step 6: Perform the repairs before you know who is paying for it. Just like with our health care system.
Step 8: Wait three months, because there's a good chance you'll forget the whole thing by then. Likely, there will be other pothole hits that will have you scrambling for cameras, witnesses and city forms.
Repair shop empathy in Chicago
While the Windy City struggles to repair thousands of potholes each day, the private sector pitches in to do what it can. News crews stay on top of it, to be sure, as seen with the clip from CLTV, an all-news local cable station owned by the Chicago Tribune. Each news report on potholes features footage shot dozens of feet away from the station's headquarters, as identified by the station's crack research team.
You gotta love the repair shop proprietor who feels for his many customers coming in – at a fourfold increase, boo hoo hoo – with this sound bite: "This is the kind of business we wish we didn't have," he says. "You know, some of these tire and rim packages cost a thousand dollars."
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN71V-V7F18&NR=1" target="_blank">Chicago pothole problem</a>
But for the fact he provides employment and must meet a payroll, one assumes he'd give his services away out of deep concern.
Seinfeld: The Pothole episode
While the clip doesn't actually show a pothole, we get a look at the chain of events that can conspire to disaster from events on a road. Elaine is irresponsibly ditsy, Kramer stumbles as usual and Neuman suffers the consequences:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwinnODU0yo" target="_blank">Seinfeld – The Pothole</a>
In conclusion …
Potholes are everywhere, and with the aging road system still being fixed largely with 19th century technology, they're only getting worse, inevitable and expensive. We're all paying dearly for road repairs and auto insurance premiums. Learn to laugh out of necessity because – to paraphrase the 17th century poet John Donne – "Send not to know for whom the pothole hits. It hits at thee."

Laugh so you don't cry: The Pothole Funnies

There are nearly 3.95 million miles of public roads in the United States , valued at more than $1.75 trillion. The NCPP will provide a valuable resource to help educate others about the benefits of pavement preservation. It can enhance pavement preservation knowledge through research and assist owner agencies to establish effective programs. These programs extend pavement life and improve motorist safety and satisfaction while saving public tax dollars.
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NCPP – National Center for Pavement Preservation

Spend 20 minutes watching TV news and you’d think the biggest transportation problem today is the auto industry. Bailouts, bankruptcies and acquisitions by foreign companies command the lion’s share of media attention – enough so that we forget about another very expensive transportation problem affecting virtually every driver in the country.
That problem is potholes. We see them in the dead of winter in northern towns, but also in semi-tropical cities like Miami and Honolulu. We drive like NASCAR professionals to avoid hitting them and mostly succeed – until we don’t, and end up with flat tires or worse. Come spring and summer we curse them if they are still there, unfilled, almost as much as we yell during traffic tie-ups due to road repair work.
Conspiracy theories are abundant in the blogosphere, suggesting a linkage between municipalities and the auto repair industry (however, none of that is supported by the evidence). But along with those other certainties of life, death and taxes, it seems that potholes are a universal experience. Frustration and dollars add up.
But all is not lost – improvements are on the way. Tire and auto dealers provide online advice to drivers on how to manage their way through pothole season. Municipalities test alternatives to road salt, which can corrode reinforcement bars in roads and bridges. And engineers are devising new methods for pothole and road repair, making pothole fillers last longer and street construction sturdier.
A grim accounting
And in case you know anyone at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) or TRIP, a national transportation research group, don’t invite him or her to your next backyard barbecue. The conversation could not be cheerful. In their seminal report, Rough Roads Ahead, Fix Them Now or Pay for It Later, it appears as if we’re due for a few tire blowouts and much worse in taxes in the future. Here are some of their findings:
<ul type="disc">
<li>As much as 20 percent of the Interstate Highway System is rated mediocre or poor.</li>
<li>Forty percent of rural roads are in less-than good condition.</li>
<li>Sixty percent of urban roads are in poor condition.</li>
<li>Drivers themselves spend an average $335 per year in vehicle operating costs, with those costs a much higher $746 per year in certain urban areas where repairs are more frequent and more expensive.</li>
</ul>
The report notes that $27 billion dollars are designated by Congress in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (the “stimulus bill”) to go to highway projects. But AASHTO’s research also shows that an investment of $166 billion needs to be spent each year in highways and bridges. That’s a trillion dollars on road infrastructure alone in the next six years.
Rough Roads Ahead also provides a few cautionary tales. One is that a road allowed to deteriorate over 25 years will cost three times more to repair than a road that was maintained over the same number of years. Traffic growth of 41 percent from 1990 through 2007 exceeds population growth, which shows no sign of abating any time soon. While the bulk of this traffic is in urban areas, freight truck traffic on the 50-year old Interstate highway system carries 80 percent of the freight tonnage moving across the country – that’s 10,500 trucks per day crossing every mile of the system. Recession-strapped state coffers fall short of simply maintaining the poor levels of roads they have currently – stimulus funds will only bring them back to parity, at best, with better economic times.
This should hardly be a point of controversy. Potholes cost everyone money. Preventing potholes saves money. An ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure. So why aren’t potholes being fixed in a timelier fashion?
With all due credit, most municipalities are doing the best they can. They get the phone calls, see the television news “pothole cam” reporting, and hear about it from taxpayer organizations. They truly want solutions, and strive to find new ways of doing things, but resources are limited, more so under adverse weather conditions. We could hardly blame them if they also pray for a mild winter.
Throw-and-go pothole fillers that last?
Traditionally, the pockmarked streets find their easiest and cheapest fix with application of hot-mix asphalt, administered from slow-moving trucks by municipal employees who are greeted as heroes in most neighborhoods. But everyone knows how these fixes deteriorate over time – pothole filler can work loose or settles deeper than intact pavement in just a few weeks. An ordinary avenue in places like Cleveland, Wichita, Miami or Los Angeles can be worthy of an SUV television ad – lots of jarring bumps, as challenging as an off-road trail in the Sierra Nevadas.
Newer approaches to pothole repair show promise of creating something better. Some technologies work longer – they hold the hole, so to speak, for longer lengths of time – and some even offer “green” advantages over traditional hot-mix approaches.
<blockquote>I did the math. If it cost $10 to patch a pothole one time, and I had to patch 12 times a year, then $20 or $30 to patch it once a year would save me both labor time and material costs. Using this product we are able to do a better utility cut and do it faster.</blockquote>
Several state departments of transportation have begun using permanent cold asphalt mix, which employ polymer-modified technology to guarantee a more permanent pothole repair. The mix provides several benefits in both application and long term wear:
<ul type="disc">
<li>Instant “throw and go” readiness for traffic – road crews tamp it down and cars can traverse it seconds later.</li>
<li>Can be applied in all weather conditions – no waiting for warmer or cooler temperatures.</li>
<li>Can be applied in water, including those “hidden” potholes that look like mere puddles to unsuspecting drivers.</li>
<li>No special mixing required, nor do the potholes need extensive preparation other than clearing loose debris – this means road repair crews can cover more territory in less time.</li>
</ul>
Use of cold-mix asphalt began long ago and is finding fans. Some DOT chiefs have gone on record about the use and economics of this newer cold-mix technology:
<ul type="disc">
<li>Millersville, Tennessee: “I did the math. If it cost $10 to patch a pothole one time, and I had to patch 12 times a year, then $20 or $30 to patch it once a year would save me both labor time and material costs. Using this product we are able to do a better utility cut and do it faster.”</li>
<li>Hialeah, Florida: [Cold asphalt] is easier to apply with hand tools for small patch jobs, and we do not have to go back and revisit potholes like before. For larger patches it is easily applied with a backhoe loader bucket and it does not stick to our equipment, truck beds or hand tools, making cleanup much easier. The benefits…in our utility patching clearly outweigh the incremental cost for it.”</li>
<li>Somers (Westchester County) New York: “We have used cold asphalt with the hopes of just getting us through the winter until we can replace with hot asphalt after the weather turns warmer. [Now] I know that I will not have to take the time to go back to the spots that we repaired in the winter. This is saving our town time and money.”</li>
</ul>
Summoning their inner Mario Andretti
Individual drivers are conducting their own independent efforts, with the help of the auto industry, to fight back as well. An association of Honda dealerships in the New York City area provides this defensive driving advice to customers on their <a href="http://www.nylihonda.com/servicemyhonda_tire.asp">website</a>:
<ul>
<li>Hitting a pothole can throw your car’s front end out of alignment. If you feel your car “pulling” as you drive, you could have a problem. Check the tread on your tires. If you find uneven treadwear, it could be a sign of misalignment. If you hit a severe pothole, have a tire dealer check your vehicle’s alignment and tire balance.</li>
<li>Damage to your tire and/or the metal wheel of your vehicle can occur when you hit a pothole. Keeping your tires properly inflated helps reduce damage from potholes and other road hazards.</li>
<li>The impact of potholes on tires increases dramatically depending on the speed at which your vehicle travels. This can cause hidden, internal damage that could lead to tire failure weeks, or even months, later. For these reasons, it is best to avoid potholes entirely. If that’s not possible, avoid braking during pothole impact. Instead, apply your brakes before hitting a pothole and release them just prior to impact. (Braking during impact sets up the tire and wheel assembly for a “solid hit” against the edge of the hole. Less severe damage occurs when a tire rolls over a pothole than when it skids during braking.)</li>
</ul>
Taking matters into their own hands, here is a sampling of advice from one <a href="http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1633427">blog</a> site, dedicated to drivers of the VW Golf GTI, on avoiding flat tires from potholes:
Subject line: Pothole resistant tires
I’ve only had my ’09 GTI 4-door for about a month (maybe less) and I’ve already blown out a tire on a pothole (I hit it avoiding another one at night in wet roads). I love my 18″, but New Jersey is riddled with potholes and I’m a little nervous about how many more times I’m going to have to deal with NOT having it covered under roadside assistance and having to change my tire in the mud. Obviously if I were stronger and able to hold the tire in place while I put it back on, it wouldn’t be a big deal. :p but there aren’t even bolts to stick out and mount the tire on. So cheap. My question is, are there any tires out there that are thicker and more durable in the face of potholes for an 18″ wheel?
Responding to that, a thread of several dozen respondents covered the pros and cons of over-inflation of tires, either to create greater flat resilience (at the expense of ride comfort) or to enable sharper, more agile cornering so the driver can avoid potholes altogether. If they were Honda drivers on Long Island, they’d know the answer to this question. Clearly, it’s a hot topic, and the solutions might be as varied as the country’s different drivers and vehicles.
So there you have it. Potholes are a big, fat problem. They’re ubiquitous and inevitable. Minimizing damage and costs associated with those damages will not come with a one-fix silver bullet. It’s a matter of timely funding, spending those funds smartly, innovation – and knowing how to drive.

Hate the pothole. Love the filler.

As motorists, the pothole is one of the most notorious foes we encounter.&nbsp; Fabricated from nothing and created by no one, the elusive pothole manifests itself with a certain subtlety wherever it pleases and wreaks havoc indiscriminately on those unfortunate enough to cross its path.&nbsp; Like a lion stalking in tall grass, the pothole waits, with unsurpassed patience, for an unsuspecting prey to fall into its trap.&nbsp; Whether or not a victim is able to walk away from such an incident is very much in the stature of the pot hole; the bigger they are, the harder they fall.&nbsp; While many potholes merely jostle their victims, often eliciting a bout of profanity and unnecessary stress, a Goliath pothole may render a motorist&#8217;s vessel completely incapacitated.&nbsp; To say the least, the pothole is a vehicle&#8217;s arch enemy, but for some reason, seems to remain underestimated, overlooked, and commonly accepted as a necessary hazard associated with any commute.&nbsp; To comprise a solution we must first understand our nemesis, so today we will explore the life of a pothole.
<blockquote>After continuous wear, the cracks begin to emerge to the surface, and now the weather begins to take its toll.</blockquote>
A pothole, like a living creature, begins at conception, and continues to grow until its death.&nbsp; While a pothole has no parents, it is most often born from a combination of wear and weather.&nbsp; Day in and day out, roads have the burden of supporting the weight of thousands upon thousands of cars.&nbsp; This constant force can eventually fracture the road; most often this initially occurs below surface level.&nbsp; After continuous wear, the cracks begin to emerge to the surface, and now the weather begins to take its toll.&nbsp; Moisture seeps into these defects and expands and contracts at the whim of temperature.&nbsp; This, combined with erosion, aggravates the road surface further.
As these cracks continue to develop, in both size and quantity, the pothole grows closer to its maturity.&nbsp; As more and more breaks form near each other, they begin to intertwine and form a network of cracks.&nbsp; No longer independent of one another, these networks can collectively pool moisture, expediting the degradation of the road&#8217;s surface.&nbsp; The segments of the road isolated by these faults no longer maintain the same structural integrity as the once solid surface; these islands are no longer reinforced by the masses surrounding it.
All this time, the roads are still being constantly subjected to the forces of wear and weather, and, sooner or later, it simply can&#8217;t take it anymore.&nbsp; Pieces of the now depreciated road surface can break away from vehicles dislodging them.&nbsp; Even though a single segment may be small and may not seem like much of a loss initially, it&#8217;s only down hill from there.&nbsp; The missing segment only makes the surrounding imperfections more vulnerable to following a similar fate; water and moisture now have a notably larger reservoir for pooling; the downward force of a vehicle over the missing piece is also no longer evenly distributed, exerting even more force on the pieces surrounding it.&nbsp; Eventually more and more segments of the cracked road follow suit.&nbsp; Finally, we are left with a full blown pothole.
The problem doesn&#8217;t stop there though, in fact, it&#8217;s only getting worse.&nbsp; The problem of a growing reservoir increases exponentially, and the uneven force of tires still has a deteriorating effect.&nbsp; Combine these constant variables with a weaker under surface and watch the pothole grow&hellip; and grow&hellip; and grow&hellip; until something is done about it.&nbsp; Potholes can be repaired, but, to commuters&#8217; dismay, mending potholes usually doesn&#8217;t become a priority until serious damage is a real, imminent possibility.&nbsp; Proactivity can go a long way, so why wait?.. You never know when it will be your vehicle taken out of commission by the rogue pothole.
Sources:
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pothole" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pothole</a>
<a href="http://www.westvalley.edu/att/Pavement%20Management/pm_01.htm" target="_blank">http://www.westvalley.edu/att/Pavement%20Management/pm_01.htm</a>

An Introduction: The Life of a Pothole

In 2009, GEICO began a series of commercials featuring talking inanimate objects doing damage to cars. So far, they have used a talking tree limb falling on a windshield and breaking it. The tree limb makes fun of the car right before a smaller limb falls on the hood. The next one is a talking pothole with a thick southern girl accent causing a flat tire. The pothole somewhat apologizes then says she’ll get her cell phone out and call a wrecker before realizing that she doesn’t have one because she’s a pothole. Other recent one’s include a talking car bumper and talking husband and wife pipes that have Russian accents.			
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usIGLmTuDN8&amp;feature=player_embedded" target="_blank">Click here to watch the video</a>

Pothole Articles