BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

PennDOT deploys http://potholekillers.com/ to supplement their efforts.

Not cheap.

You mean your one of the few who DOESNT like bruising their kidneys every time they head south bound on 5th Ave going into Oakland? Or riding down any street in Oakland or East Liberty for that matter.

Road repair and construction in this City and State are the biggest jokes around. Somewhere the PennDot CEO and his minions are sitting around laughing at all the money that is thrown at them and how no one is questioning why the roads are so shitty.

What about lumpy roads? On Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill, and also on Negley Avenue southbound before Baum Boulevard, the road bends up and creates a weird ridge. Would running a steamroller over that make a positive difference or does it need more than that?

The one on negley is like a sweet little ramp. I could do a sweet jump off of it! I feel like bringing a full suspension bike with me on that road even just prior to that part. Riding over tree roots in Frick is a smoother ride than negley.

Devonshire St. in Shadyside near the intersection with Ellsworth is lousy with potholes, I found out this weekend.

@jkp1187 - You can revise that to every street in Shadyside that intersects with Ellsworth. It's gotten kind of ridiculous with potholes.

@ieverhart, Butler has that wicked faux-hawk too. Though fortunately they have re-paved a few blocks of it.

Unfortunately, it's caused from heavy vehicles, and poor road substrate, and requires more than just a few passes of something heavier to iron back out. Re-paving is the only foreseeable change, although a road re-build would do wonders to prevent it in the future.

I'm wondering if one of the problems stems from when someone from PWSA digs a hole. Is the city responsible for re-paving or is PWSA? Example on Ellsworth at Clyde Street. A few months ago, PWSA opened up a hole on Ellsworth then it was filled horribly, sunk and had to be filled again to be a hump. I bet PWSA did this work.

Shouldn't PWSA be held to same inspection standards as a private contractor? Wouldn't that work have been inspected by somebody? Is the failure in the system lax enforcement, or "going easy" by the City on PWSA?

@ Lou

Yes, the PWSA does that ALL the time. I've seen it happen literally WEEKS after a roadway is entirely repaved. Public Works and PWSA need to get on a better schedule to avoid crap like that, or probably even better, the PWSA needs to be held more accountable for their poor work.

PWSA is a power unto itself.

For example, didja know that they have been granted the authority to hold the new owner of a house responsible for the unpaid bills of the prior owner? Happened to a friend of mine a couple years back.

/threadjack

To add, as if it even needs to be reported:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11255/1174004-53-0.stm

It does seem odd that a street system managed by the City is allowed to be man handled by an independent authority with no follow up inspection. Any repair to a street should be completed by the city and paid for by those who are responsible for the hole.

@Lou: exactly!

What's up with that? If I hired a plumber to repair a failed connection to the sewer main, I'd have to file for permits (which means inspections), post bonds, the whole deal. And you can bet that I'd get hosed if the patch that my asphalt subcontractor did wasn't up to snuff.

So why exactly does the PWSA get away with it?

Because they know more people than you and no one stands up against them. Pretty much how America in general works.

Nice job with the low-fruit there, boostuv. But isn't it possible there is more to it? I mean how many people don't even realize the difference between the City of Pittsburgh and the PWSA; that permits and inspections are a common requirement to even municipal work; that a lot of this work is performed by subcontractors who may be doing inferior work; etc., etc.

And if no one knows, and no one is paying attention, and no one raises a stink, nothing will change and business will continue as usual.

How hard would it really be for the City to require other parties (like the PWSA) to coordinate their projects within the Cities paving schedule, or require them to pay a premium to repave, and hold them to a really high finish standard for tearing into a road that was just paved?

I vaguely recall a Penn Hills municipal meeting back a while ago where they passed some kind of measure or considered a measure that basically said "no digging up our streets for X amount of time after we repave/resurface/resomething, if you do you pay for the city to repair it to city standards." and had some guidance for coordination of schedules - I am witnessing the effects on a road in my neighborhood, it was all crappy and horrid and is slated for repaving this fall and all summer the utility has been digging it up and doing stuff to it, so that they finish in time for the repaving.

I wish I remembered more details, but it IS possible to solve this problem. One of the reasons the problem exists is because nice, fresh new pavement is easier to dig into, so it takes less time. Thus they may actually be intentionally digging in to fresh pavement.

Lets take Oakland and Shadyside for example. Who lives in these places? For the most part its young, single, twenty-somethings who are busy trying to balance classes and social lives or are starting their first "real" job. I highly doubt most of these people are going to take time out of their day to go to a community meeting and voice their opinions. Another reason is the turn-over rate in these areas is HUGE. Lets be honest, no one buys a house in Oakland with the intent of being there more than a couple years. Couple that with the large amount of people who are in from other communities and states. Therefore its not of huge concern to see the community advance and grow into something better. People in Oakland cant even pick up their own damn trash, and you expect them to write letters to the City Commissioner about road quality and the unfair practices that are occurring?

People have no pride in the area they live in and often times just treat it as a means to an end. Its a very common mentality to say screw the future we're just concerned about the here and now.

311 PWSA's poor repair jobs. They'll at least try to throw another layer of cold patch on what's sucken in from the week before.

it doesn't look like they'll be repaving liberty or morewood this year, both of which are in desperate need, but i did notice that fifth inbound from morewood is torn up. didn't see how far it went, but good news, nonetheless.

I generally agree with bostuv - if the people living in these neighborhoods aren't invested in the neighborhood, they are not likely to take the time to attend meetings or write letters; they are less likely to take their money to improve their apartment or yard (because they are renting). It doesn't make them bad people. It does reveal a problem with the property owners, many of whom are even less invested in the neighborhoods, and who are content to let the years go by and allow time to appreciate their properties and line their pockets.

5th Ave is torn up till in front Webster Hall.

it ain't over until it's no longer 35 and rising...

Lindy will batch out in the city up to the end of October.

I also think part of the problem (and what Impala26's article points to) is that a lot of the time the PWSA is doing unexpected repairs

So if they're not doing preventative maintenance, it's hard for them to tell when and where a pipe's going to break and so they can't plan it around the paving schedule (and will still probably hard to predict even if they are doing preventative maintenance)

For example, they tore up Ellsworth earlier this month (or last) by that private school, which was just repaved last year. Something was leaking for a few days out of the sewer and they had it blocked off

Who appoints the PWSA people?

For example, they tore up Ellsworth earlier this month (or last) by that private school, which was just repaved last year. Something was leaking for a few days out of the sewer and they had it blocked off

if this was done by pwsa, i invite them to do more work. or at least do more work the way they did that.

that is, if this was the curb on the corner of morewood and ellsworth that was torn up about three weeks ago. it had a bunch of gushing water in it, and was torn up for about three or four days. and when they were done, they patched it so that there is a portion of road going down morewood crossing ellsworth that doesn't have a hole in it. i ride this stretch every day, and there is a canyon at that intersection that i usually seem to hit at speed.

sorry, this has little to do with what you said. but i was somewhat happy for that road repair, because even though it is out of the way from my normal travel, i was happy to see some of that canyon filled in.

and incidentally, it was two years ago that they paved ellsworth. i hope that doesn't make you feel old. it makes me feel old. what's the difference between two years and one year any more?

ok, back to your regularly scheduled thread!

Ah, that's the thing I was referring to

Clearly I have no sense of time...