Maintain old roads before spending it on new ones

March 13, 2005

Spectrum/Rep. Carl Gatto

The governor has proposed a spending plan that includes spending for new roads in remote locations. This money is separate from money used for road maintenance and the two accounts are required to remain separate.

Nonetheless, so long as we consider spending for new road construction we must also allow for road maintenance. It is far more reasonable to maintain the things we already have before we spend millions on fancy new projects and then find them crumbling away long before their time.

Let's face it, when we fail to consider maintenance - and that is exactly what we often do - we set ourselves up for the bigger and more complicated problems that follow. It's been done so often that it nearly seems normal. Those were regretful choices made in the past and it's time to face responsibilities.

I spend a great deal of my personal time looking at highways and roads. As an avid runner and walker putting in as much as 20 miles a week, I have lots of time to observe newly formed cracks, potholes, crumbling edges, disappearing lane stripes, damaged signs and the ubiquitous trash discarded by a few inconsiderate drivers.

There is much we can do to get our thoroughfares in good repair before they become so deteriorated that we are forced to spend fortunes for reconstruction.

Alaska winters are brutal on pavement, causing ever-widening cracks that provide a channel for water to seep under the surface where it freezes and thaws several times each winter.

In bad weather traffic searching for lane markers often drifts sideways, damaging the shoulders. Certainly everyone has noticed how the ever-present potholes seem to multiply like rabbits.

If we have money to spend on new roads we must also find money that will be used to repair existing damage. Spending $100,000 on repair and maintenance easily prevents $1 million in reconstruction costs and also makes for better and safer driving. That's a better choice!

Rep. Carl Gatto

District-13, Palmer