America's roads are awful!!

Where are the surprise inspections.. Prohibited by federal law if Federal money is involved.. Now if it is state funded without any federal.. Many Concerte companies have been .. er... Surprised.

The inspector at the plant is the same for all batches generally. and thus subject to bribe. a "Surprise" inspection (unannounced) has caught a few of 'em with their quality down. These people figure they can make a bundle by certifying sub par and running before the bad concrete starts to fail .. An old but effective scam.



Michigan did a few miles of road WITHOUT federal assistance.. Lasted longer than the Federal funded.. Wonder why? (I used to work in a shared office. one of the occupants. actually the owners. Michigan State Departent of Transportation Project office where new and exciting innocations in freeway construction are born.. This office was straight out of a Science Fiction Movie. only it was not fiction. it WAS however SCIENCE (Yes I saw the movie)

troubledwaters wrote:

wa8yxm wrote:
The condition of the roads depends on many factors. One I need to research more on.

The construction standard.. Did you know that the states are PROHIBITED from doing surprise inspections of the concret mix or taking "Core" samples if federal money is involved??? My only comment is no comment for safety reasons.

Some roads are just not strong enough for today's big Semi's.. Some are built stronger. Some to autobaun or modified autobaun standards (A stretch of I-75 in Detroit was done that way as a test project. Alas I did not stick around long enough to find out how well it held up).

Eisenhower started the Freeway system.. .And since he left office the roads have gone to POT(holes) in many states.

I don't know what you mean by surprise inspections.

One - the concrete batching is inspected by a certified plant inspector as it is being batched at the plant, who then signs the batch ticket.

Two - The concrete is tested by a certified testing inspector at the site of the work as it comes out of the truck during the pour; who then signs the testing form.

Three - the concrete is inspected by a certified inspector as it is being formed, placed, finished, cured, etc. Who fills out and signs his report daily.

Don't know what you mean by "Prohibited surprise inspections". Where in the process is the "surprise" going to occur?


As far as coring the pavement, I'll direct you to the MDOT standard specifications for construction, Section 602.03.O Clicky

Gee, and with all that, they are tearing out a brand new bridge near my house because the concrete didn't pass some kind of inspection.

Today they are paving the other end of that road but skipping a spot because of a study being done about bog turtles, snail darters or some such creature that may or may not live in the culvert pipe under the road.

There is no end to the waste here in the state with the highest fuel tax.

My only complaint are the bridge transitions. Many of those will jolt your teeth out.

bguy wrote:


When I first saw those signs I had an imaginary phone conversation go through my head;

"Hello"
"Paul?"
"Yes."
"This is John down at the highways depot."
"Oh how are ya John?"
"I'm fine except we got our shipment today and I think there's something wrong."
"Oh?"
"We got 500 pothole signs. We were supposed to get 500 pothole patch."
"Well I just happen to have your order form right here and you have clearly checked to box for pothole signs and not pothole patch."
"I need to return them and get pothole patch."
"I'm afraid that's not possible since they are made to order and not returnable."
"What am I supposed to do with 500 pothole signs?!"
"Put em next to the potholes?...."


BTW Did you take any potholes with you? You can have as many as you want!

Bob Newhart, already.

New tar over old concrete - The Worse!!! Thumpa thumpa thumpa

I frequent 3-4 LTL and OTR truckers forums. The big bitzh over there is concrete roads. States wait too long before replacing them.
In 2015 we made a trip west to the coastal mountains on I-40 through OK/TX/NM/AZ/CA.
The trip was smooth till we hit AZ. WOW....they actually had signs up on I-40 saying "ROUGH ROADS".

In my state we spend too much monies making a two lane highway that doesn't have much traffic into a four lane. Most of the time its the state representative from that area has political pull with our DOT folks that supplies monies for highway projects.
The mother road (US-66) goes through my area. Backers are trying to get it all 4 laned...hell it doesn't have much traffic at all in the summer months and next to nothing in the winter months through here. Then they let sections of nearby I-44 go to helz.
Pork barrel come to mind.

State route 2 in Nebraska, concrete slab, shook my class c so hard, all my drawers opened and pulled my slide floor away from the wall. 6800 dollars later worst road in America.