Potholes? We Have Potholes?
- With a sickening thunk one of your front tires lands in a mini-crater, and you perhaps wonder if there’s something more the city can do to prevent potholes. There is, says the city’s Office of Inspector General, and it could save your cash-strapped metropolis $4.6 million each year.
Chicago’s “pavement management program,” which covers about 3,600 miles of residential and arterial roads is “neither efficient nor cost-effective,” according to an OIG report released Tuesday.
Among other things, the city’s Department of Transportation could do a better job of sealing cracks before they develop into tire-swallowing potholes, the inspector general’s office found. And the city does a poor job of collecting data on the condition of city streets, particularly residential ones, which make up the vast majority of the roadways under the city’s jurisdiction.
Or they could research into how the roads up north always seem to be pothole free. It always amazes us that when headed north, the rattle and thunder of our tires seems to suddenly evaporate as soon as we see that "Welcome to Wisconsin" signage. The speedometer climbs a couple extra miles-per-hour as the tires don't have to bounce and we don't have to swerve as much. This has led to some amusing meetings with Wisconsin's finest, but no harm.
We saw a study some years back - the amount of money spent per mile of roadway in Illinois versus that of other Midwestern states in the snow belt. What was shocking? amusing? sad? was how little life expectancy Illinois drivers got out of their roads, leading to the old adage of two seasons - winter and construction. Illinois (and Chicago) build crappy roads to keep construction companies in business, who in turn, keep donations flowing into to politicians, who keep the low-bid crappy roads in existence.
Maintain a road? The Inspector General might as well as the City to maintain an in-car camera. It isn't in the nature of the City to spend money on maintaining what they can simply buy again, again and again.
We saw a study some years back - the amount of money spent per mile of roadway in Illinois versus that of other Midwestern states in the snow belt. What was shocking? amusing? sad? was how little life expectancy Illinois drivers got out of their roads, leading to the old adage of two seasons - winter and construction. Illinois (and Chicago) build crappy roads to keep construction companies in business, who in turn, keep donations flowing into to politicians, who keep the low-bid crappy roads in existence.
Maintain a road? The Inspector General might as well as the City to maintain an in-car camera. It isn't in the nature of the City to spend money on maintaining what they can simply buy again, again and again.
Labels: city politics
posted by SCC at 12:33 AM
39 Comments:
Wisconsin knows how to build a good road that lasts a long time. While Illinois takes years and years to finish a project,Wisconsin goes in, gets it done and gets out of there. Illinois is a joke as usual.
Why not create a new vocational program aimed at training wayward youth - and adults - some job skills.
Put several crews together from all the shooters and other gang members found guilty in the ghetto.
That would offset the tens of Millions of $$$ spent on treating gunshot victims EVERY month in Chicago.
WOW - such an innovative program. I should be awarded some huge Good Government Award, turning a SHIT city into a City that Works.
Hey, wasn't that Chicago's Motto?
#MyTaxesMatter
I seen a machine used in Germany that seal potholes... And only takes one person to it without leaving the vehicle... But everyone knows the Chicago way of do this... 4 guys with shovels and votes for the alder-hole. No one ever thought the bullshit they are shoveling in that hole is semi cold and will lift up a month or two later. Dumb fucks!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OoZjbulJNpA
This is a pot hole repair machine
What a well-rounded inspector general!!!! Hey joe, you could find all kinds of stuff if you start digging on the 5th floor, and in council chambers....maybe look into past leader's actions too.
Bottom line, potholes and bad roads provide jobs and payrolls. Payrolls provide tax revenue. A lot of money gets passed around and even the little guy benefits. That don't happen with those beautiful smooth roads and streets.
Connected street paving companies keep using the same
cheap, shitty, inferior asphalt designed to melt in the heat of
Chicago summers and crumble to bits in Chicago's vicious winter
freeze/thaw cycles for the last 60+ years...
During one big Dan Ryan resurfacing project some years ago,
somebody independent came out to take core samples.
The stuff was cheap and shitty to the point of being criminal.
Nothin'.
Yet these thieving, political kick-backing paving outfits have
gotten away with blaming Chicago's weather and use of
road salt as the reason why the roads stay shitty.
Go to other places in this country and world where roads last
50 years or more.
Everybody flaps their dick-beaters about how "corrupt"
Police Culture is...
Nobody sayin' shit about the Chicago municipal corporation
Culture of corruption that allows the paving outfits to steal
with both hands.
I read once that there's some chemical which can be mixed in with the asphalt to make it last about 3x as long, but it smells for a day or two, and that's the excuse the IL Legislature used to ban it in IL.
The other thing is to stop using asphalt - use concrete, make it about 2x as thick and set aside money when building the road to fund future repairs.
Stop putting asphalt over concrete roads too - it's stupid. Water gets thru the asphalt, and screws up the underlying concrete base. The only reason they layer it is to pander to both construction unions - the concrete and the asphalt guys...
IL sucks.
Ooooooooo And Check This Out , Now DOT is Hiring ASPHALT LABORERS 20 OF THEM , and they Now even cut there Pay to Slave the Shit out of them before they Get what they should be paid in the First Place . Check This Out
New hires will be paid as follows:
$27.44/hour for the first 1040 hours worked (70% of full rate) ( Half of them or more , Will Leave after they slave the shit out them on the first 1040 Hrs )
$35.28/hour for the second 1040 hours worked (90% of full rate)
$39.20/hour after 2080 hours worked (100% full rate)
You Know what Asshole thought of this shit . MERRY CHRISTMAS
Nah, not going to say it. Wouldn't be prudent.
I think I have the answer for the fewer potholes up north equation. Follow this equation:
North side---more Starbucks.
More Starbucks--more brain damaged people.
More brain damaged people---more likely to use bikes than cars, even in shit weather.
Less cars---less potholes.
If only all the city's problems were so easily analyzed.
Glad to see the IG is concerned about pot holes instead of corrupt politicians! What a Lame fucking duck office!
Hey, pot holes make great speed bumps. Perhaps that's the reason for not being in a hurry to fix them?
Driving to Wisconsin from Shitcago you will have to pass numerous tolls to help pay for these road repairs, and yet, you can drive twice that distance in Wisconsin and not pass through a single toll.
They use granite aggregate in Wisconsin. You have granite north of the waupaca river. In illinois, we have no granite. We use linestone aggregate exclusively. From ilinois quarries. We won't ship aggregate from wisconsin, new york, Minnesota quarries in order to build the kinfs of roads you find in those states. That is the answer, pure and simple. Illinois tax money spent on illinois limestone aggregate.
Every fall the Wisconsin version of S&S comes out and fills any cracks on the streets with hot tar. They then cover it with a thin paper which protects it from your tires while at the same time, protects your tires from it. Eventually the paper wears off. None of this "cold patch" nonsense. We have no potholes in Wisconsin at least not in my part of it. But then again this is the place where I saw a gatbage man stop his truck, get out and pickup a piece of paper that had blown out of his truck. This is the place where they plow the street from curb to curb, not plow a single path down the middle of the street like they do in Chicago when it snows.
I've traveled in both Croatia and cambodia in recent years. Interestingly, both dubrovnik and phnom pehn, war-torn in the 90s, have much better roads than chicago.
This is what has been called a corruption tax. Apparently Chicago voters are too stupid to change the situation.
I drove to Minneapolis several years ago and spent a week there. My entire time outside of cook county I did not encounter a single pot hole, not even in the city of Minneapolis.
The city's motto should be: "we don't have the money to do it right, but we do have the money to do it over"
Potholes keep the money flowing into all facets and levels of our society and workforce. God Bless the potholes.
It's due to rigged contracts , shoddy workmanship etc.
They always blame the freeze thaw cycle as if potholes are just a fact of life.
Wisconsin undoubtedly has more , and more severe, freeze thaw cycles than we do yet they have way less potholes and much better roads.
Of course the insane amounts of salt used around here doesn't help matters either. Often times we'll get a dusting of snow but an inch of salt.
I bet there are not potholes around Tiny Dancer's house. ♠️
Hopefully a huge sinkhole will open up on Michigan ave the 24 of Dec and swallow all those douchebag mutt protesters.
the problem is .....if you keep patching a hole, you still have the hole with a patch on it
Got some pot holes that were reported thru 311 over a year ago, still there.
City that works?
Don't feel bad, San Fransisco has a similar problem. It is much easier for the city to pass ordinances, banning plastic bags in supermarkets, concerning public nudity, and global warming then it is to fix the roads.
The roads last 3 times longer in other States because they mix rubber with asphalt,So it lasts longer and expands and contracts better,Crooked Politics wont allow that here.
Just like a light bulb made by Tesla is still burning in a firehouse in California, and a car can be built to last a lot longer than they do,but obviously the economy needs to flow, currency needs to move and in the mean time the rich get richer and the gap widens between the poor and the upper class,the economy seems to be improving,people are going to the show to see Star Wars and shopping for Christmas gifts,all is good and a possible threat is looming,but certainly they haven't won so lets enjoy this time of year and may God Bless each and everyone of you,especially those in blue!! CPD retired guy🙏🏽
The key to long lasting roads is to require a performance bond requirement for the successful bidder. They have to purchase a performance bond from a private insurer. The bond will pay to fix the work under contract if it does not last the appropriate number of years, or if it is defective. The insurance company issuing the bond will inspect the job as it is done. and ride the contractors ass if the work is being done is substandard. All materials would be tested by the insurance company.
Of course this means the politically connected contractor would have trouble paying kickbacks.
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20151222/downtown/worst-people-of-2015-rahm-made-gqs-list
Requirements to be a pot hole guy, making more money than a cop--- vote democrat and be in the back pocket of an alder-scumbag.
Just acme back from Wisconsin, same type of weather, but the corruption is obviously lower better roads, better living!But the tax pension income something to think about! Another thing going around is that the sate is going to tax our pensions but i disagree found this for Illinois!
HR0890 LRB099 15615 GRL 39907 r
1
HOUSE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, The State of Illinois exempts State taxation of
3 retirement income; and
4 WHEREAS, Retirees living on a fixed income have limited
5 ability to rejoin the workforce, face high health care costs,
6 and have little ability to save money; and
7 WHEREAS, Retirees could not have anticipated in their
8 lifetime of planning that their retirement income would
9 suddenly be taxed by the State, forcing them to cut already
10 strained household budgets; and
11 WHEREAS, Retirees do pay many other taxes, such as federal
12 income taxes, property taxes, and sales taxes; and
13 WHEREAS, The exclusion of taxing retirement income
14 encourages residents to remain living throughout their
15 retirement in Illinois and encourages newly retired Americans
16 to relocate to the State; therefore, be it
17 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
18 NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
19 state our belief that the Illinois Income Tax Act should not be
20 amended to permit taxing retirement income; and be it further
HR0890 - 2 - LRB099 15615 GRL 39907 r
1 RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
2 delivered to all Illinois constitutional officers, the Speaker
3 and Minority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives,
4 and the President and Minority Leader of the Illinois Senate.
SCC spot on, if you run across any old-old time Wisconsin State Troopers in your travels bring up the dairy truck drivers strike years back for an antidote.
O.T. to the retiree who was buddy-buddy with his firehouse friends good for you, I'm sure your were never detailed to a firehouse or fire during the strike (I was ) and their actions (when no one was watching) will never be forgotten. Unless the FF in your district were all SCABS.
(Pot Hole Fillers) New hires will be paid as follows:
$27.44/hour for the first 1040 hours worked (70% of full rate) ( Half of them or more , Will Leave after they slave the shit out them on the first 1040 Hrs )
$35.28/hour for the second 1040 hours worked (90% of full rate)
$39.20/hour after 2080 hours worked (100% full rate)
After their probation period (2080 hrs.) The average pot hole filler will make over $81,000 a year, not counting benefits and overtime, AND no contact cards or DOJ oversight.
Stay out of the first lane, going N/B on Central about 50feet from edgebrook golf course entrance, the hole has to be 3feet deep by 2 feet wide, your taxes at work?
Corruption works for all. Illinois and Cook Co. citizens know this. That is why they keep electing the folks that they do.
Ooooooooo And Check This Out , Now DOT is Hiring ASPHALT LABORERS 20 OF THEM , and they Now even cut there Pay to Slave the Shit out of them before they Get what they should be paid in the First Place . Check This Out .........
"there" pay??? The asshole that thought of this is just as smart as you.
"Among other things, the city’s Department of Transportation could do a better job of sealing cracks..."
Ho ho, I saw that and thought at first it read "selling crack". Yep, been working in the Big City too long...
The REAL kick in the balls regarding the persistently
shitty condition of Chicago's streets?
A LOT of modern cars have Aluminum alloy
suspension components for weight-saving...
Sailin' along at 29 mph then drop a front wheel
in a Rahm Emanuel Spin-Bomb crater...
Chicago is the ONLY city in this nation where you
have to wear a mouth-guard, helmet and a diaper
to successfully navigate these intentionally wretched streets.
What's up with that "Infrastructure Trust" bee-yes that
Rahm was grinning up everybody's ass about?
Or was that just another one of many diversionary
initiative announcements of any given day?
"Mister Mayor! Another question if you will?"
>Skedaddle Scamper & Flee!<
Rotten little fuck...
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