Thursday, January 21, 2010

City streets, bridges, need an overhaul

From Gothamist:

Every year, New York City drivers lose about 44 hours of their time and $1,900 of their money to poorly maintained roads, according to a new study. The average motorist pays $638 to repair automotive damage caused by shoddy streets, while the rest of the money goes towards "wasted gas, medical fees and lost productivity," the reports indicates.

The "Future Mobility In New York" [PDF] study found that 54 percent of the city's busiest roads are in "poor condition" and 35 percent of the city's bridges are structurally deficient, according to the Daily News.

And road conditions aren't going to get better any time soon. The study contends that the state needs about $175 billion to maintain roads and bridges over the next 20 years, but so far only $87 billion has been earmarked for that purpose. "At that rate of investment, we will be investing in a state of deterioration," said one expert.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not just the surface of the road. Much of the lighting is out or dimmed,especially uderpass/overpass locations.The poor lighting is is magnified by worn pavement markings andthe lack of reflectivity on even freshly painted markings.At least DOT isn't putting glass in the new asphalt anymore.

faster340 said...

Yeah you should come look at the multiple repairs they have already had to make on Jay Avenue which is a newly repaved road and it's going to need repair again. They stripped all the way down and repaved. Then it all started crumbling that winter and they put patches on. That fell apart. Then they came and stripped more than 100 feet of roadway and repaved again. Guess what? It's now crumbling again. I am going to get pictures and send them on to DOT...

Anonymous said...

Your car will require more repairs more frequently. We pay for bad roads in one way or another.

madeleine said...

Just a wonderful article, i hope that the mayor read it !! Thank you so much, many cars are damaged from all the mess and pot holes !!