Road Rage (Or Rather - Rage at the Roads)

**BigGuy82** · 10-11-2018, 08:25 PM

Just wrapping up a 6,000 mile+ journey and had a wonderful swing through the West.

Just a very brief comment about the roads in this great nation of ours. The Interstates STINK. They are poorly maintained, extremely rough and downright damaging to our vehicles. Trucks have beat these major arteries to death and quite frankly, it will be a miracle if we can ever find the funds to correct this mess. I-70 in CO is a disaster. I-65 around Birmingham? A joke. I-90 in NY State (one of the highest tolls in the nation)? Disaster. Despite the fact that they are great connectors to every part of this country, the state of disrepair that these major arteries are in is disgraceful. I don't care who's responsible - with the amount of taxes (income taxes, fuel taxes, sales taxes, license fees, registration fees, tolls - on and on) we pay, there simply is no excuse for this neglect. Funnel the money from motorists to "social programs" and let the motorists who use the roads suffer.

On the other hand, the secondary arteries are generally in far better repair that the vaunted interstates, which is but one reason I avoid the "I's"

Just my two cents. End of rant.

**Country Campers** · 10-11-2018, 08:30 PM

Good rant, I totally agree. In Pa. they are always fixing roads but it only lasts a little while. And the ones that truly need fixed go neglected.

Brian

**bigb56** · 10-11-2018, 08:51 PM

I don't see anything happening short term as far as repair but hopefully new technology will be able to produce road surfaces that last much much longer than what we have today. I think it will happen...it has to. Just like autonomous cars will happen and that will solve the distracted driving problem which will never go away. Tires too are advancing, that can take a beating and survive: https://www.bridgestonetire.com/trea...-concept-tires

**BigGuy82** · 10-12-2018, 07:44 AM

Tires are never a problem - I use Sailuns and they have taken whatever our lousy roads can throw at them.

You may have hit on something with the distracted driver thing. Instead of spending billions developing “autonomous” cars, I think we should just arrest texting drivers, try them, and sentence them to 6 months on a road gang fixing the roads. Problems solved: no more dangerous texting and better roads!!![emoji12]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**boyscout** · 10-12-2018, 08:30 AM

Allow me to give a *very* honorable mention to I-70 across Indiana, which I traveled in April. Worst highway ever in my two-million-plus kilometers of driving. Several of the potholes were literally about three feet across and six-eight inches deep, and there were tens of thousands of others hoping to grow up to that. And the speed limit was 70mph with no warnings at all of even the biggest holes!

As @BigGuy82 says it's a widespread problem but Indiana takes the prize IMO.

**Jking46** · 10-12-2018, 08:49 AM

Proud Hoosier here
So we now lead the country in rv production, basketball, racing and crappy roads.
Kinda warms the heart.

**bertschb** · 10-12-2018, 08:59 AM

I was thinking of doing a cross country trip next year but you guys are scaring me off. I thought some sections of I-5 and Hwy99 in southern California were bad but it sounds like they might be better than average. Sheesh!!!

**WhittleBurner** · 10-12-2018, 09:03 AM

Maybe the flying cars will finally get here and we wouldn't have to fix them. Save us a lot of money, except they have already taken that money for other things. Don't know what the other things are but they do. On a more serious note roads here in Mich. are as bad as the rest of them. What surprised us was how good the roads are in Florida. We can comment how good a road is there and the next month they are resurfacing it. If that same road was in Mich. it would be the talk of the town because of how good it is. It dosen't take them long to get the job done either.

**boyscout** · 10-12-2018, 09:21 AM

Originally Posted by WhittleBurner

On a more serious note roads here in Mich. are as bad as the rest of them.

The stretch of I-75 from Detroit to Toledo was a contender for many years. The northern half of it was finally closed for a year-plus-long repair/replacement (and don't think THAT is inexpensive!) but long pieces of the lower half are still pretty rough. However Indiana I-70 even worse.

When they let maintenance slip in favor of spending money elsewhere, the cost goes up exponentially. They've let it slip in so many places across the U.S.

**offtohavasu** · 10-12-2018, 09:49 AM

For the weather we have, the roads in CA are a disgrace. We don't have the "seasons" to worry about so there is no excuse for not maintaining roads. 101 through "The Valley" will knock your fillings out, 405 is always a mess. A side note to the 405. I don't remember the exact figures, but I'll throw in something to make it relative. We they widened the 405 through the Sepulveda pass, they added 2 lanes. Keweit approached the state (the contractor doing the project) and said, "Look we can do another 2 lanes now for $5 million more OR it will be another $35 million if you do it later. Guess which option the great state of California chose. "Nah, stick to what we're doing now." Brilliance!

A majority of the road conditions on CA freeways is how they did the concrete sections. They didn't tie one pour in to the next, so one section would lift and the joint and get the bump every some many feet (great for chucking BTW). Over the last few years they have finally got around to addressing the problem. They're grinding the joints down and then cutting in ties. A lot of work for something that could have been easily done the first time.