DOT chief: Deteriorating roads could lead to more freak accidents
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SEATTLE -- A piece of deteriorating I-5 pavement shot through the air and hit a car this weekend, and the state's transportation chief says it might not be the last time we see such a freak accident.
Henry Jessop and his family were headed down I-5 near Northgate on Saturday when a brick-sized concrete panel came off the road, crashed through car's windshield and hit Jessop.
"The rock hit me so hard in the chest, it literally took my breath away," Jessop said.
Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond said road crews built much of the interstate in the 1960s, and more than 50 years of heavy use has taken its toll. Hammond said the agency doesn't have the staff or cash to fix everything that's falling apart, and the statewide to-do list just keeps getting bigger.
"As our transportation system has more wear and tear on it, and as we go longer without revenue dollars to just take care of the system that we have, we're unfortunately going to see more of this kind of thing," she said.
The idea of a similar accident happening to other motorists doesn't sit well with Cheryl Gennaios, whose sister was at the wheel when the pavement chunk smashed into her brother-in-law.
"We have to fix these problems and we have to take it seriously," she said. "You know, a bump in the road really could take you down."
Road crews laid down a temporary patch within hours of Jessop's injury, and Hammond said her agency will review the case to see if that stretch of road was slated for repairs.
"Who would think a piece of concrete would fly up off a freeway?" Hammond said. "It's not a condition we like. It's not what we want to see our transportation system do or how it should perform."
The Department of Transportation has $25 million set aside to do triage repairs on concrete panels, but a full replacement job would cost $1 billion.
Henry Jessop and his family were headed down I-5 near Northgate on Saturday when a brick-sized concrete panel came off the road, crashed through car's windshield and hit Jessop.
"The rock hit me so hard in the chest, it literally took my breath away," Jessop said.
Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond said road crews built much of the interstate in the 1960s, and more than 50 years of heavy use has taken its toll. Hammond said the agency doesn't have the staff or cash to fix everything that's falling apart, and the statewide to-do list just keeps getting bigger.
"As our transportation system has more wear and tear on it, and as we go longer without revenue dollars to just take care of the system that we have, we're unfortunately going to see more of this kind of thing," she said.
The idea of a similar accident happening to other motorists doesn't sit well with Cheryl Gennaios, whose sister was at the wheel when the pavement chunk smashed into her brother-in-law.
"We have to fix these problems and we have to take it seriously," she said. "You know, a bump in the road really could take you down."
Road crews laid down a temporary patch within hours of Jessop's injury, and Hammond said her agency will review the case to see if that stretch of road was slated for repairs.
"Who would think a piece of concrete would fly up off a freeway?" Hammond said. "It's not a condition we like. It's not what we want to see our transportation system do or how it should perform."
The Department of Transportation has $25 million set aside to do triage repairs on concrete panels, but a full replacement job would cost $1 billion.
Tim Eynitiativeman should be held criminally responsible, under the Maria Federici law ...
OK, reading the comments below, I feel sorry for all you miss-informed folks. Several years ago the State had $800m funding, now looking at $300m funding. Mukilteoâs famous Tim Eyman (who right wing radical, aka Republicans love) has done his share of damage to the funding, but more so are more efficient vehicles and the basic use of less gas equates to less revenue. Remember the car Tabs - that funding was never restored. The 5-cent and TPA funding paid for bonding so we could design and build capacity, and 90% of those are under construction. We now have to pay off the bonds - look at the numbers folks. From the 35 cent +/- from the gas tax at the pump, after bond and debt payout, local municipalityâs shares, transit, etc look at the number left. Now you should understand why there is no funding. On the comments for transit - like to drive, thank a transit rider for giving you room on the freeway/roadway. Same goes for a bike rider. Funding for bikes is next to nothing, especially compared with other major cities.Â
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I bike, bus and mostly drive, so use all three systems. Maybe in 2060 we'll get transit out to Issaquah/Sammamish and I'd use that the day it opens (if still alive considering I'll be close to 90 years old). The best thing you could do would be threefold: look at alternative travel styles, get educated on how roads/streets/sidewalks/transit lanes/bike lanes are funded, and support transportation funding, real funding to get more than maintenance done. Yeah baby, let's build that toll lane(s) and let the real users pay for what we all are use to being "free" to use and complain about. Every been to Texas, Florida, Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts (Romeâs state uses tolls on I-90 from border to border), New Hampshire, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and so on. Beside that you all are active and speaking out - I only suggest you read up first. Like Mose Allisonâs said in his song - "you mind is on vacation but your mouth is working overtime".Â
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How about supporting funding to keep from wasting taxpayer dollars on frivolous law suits - democrats milking the system.
No pun intended, but I wonder where the "break-even" point will be when the state has to pay for multiple lawsuits for damages and death caused by their failure to maintain the infrastructure.
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Seems to me that a few multi-million dollar lawsuits would pay for a lot of road repairs.
....and as things fell apart, nobody paid much attention. :)
Gee ... ya think???
>8-)
Why not fix the roads for our cars instead of making all these bike lanes?
@lgconservative Cause the mayor (of Seattle) has to have somewhere to ride (after he drives his big SUV there).
Lower the speed limit to 35mph in areas DOT determines are deteriorating. Even if its the entire I-5 stretch from Olympia to Bellingham. Lives, major accidents deterred. Then at election time demand new governement who can figure out how to fix the roads without raising taxes.
 @Ducky That's totally impossible. Absolutely impossible to fix a major piece of crumbling infrastructure without raising taxes.
The reality of the situation is, we paid taxes for this, and it should be repaired. The state and the city are too busy building mass transit and bike lanes that they don't take care of day to day. I say the family sues the state for neglect.
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 @justsayin You say that the State shouldn't build HOV/ST lanes - where do you suggest we put the new lanes needed to handle the extra traffic...and are you willing to pay the costs?
You probably think that there is no need for the new 520 bridge, that it costs too much...a lot of people said that about the I-90 bridge - until it sank.
@OrcasThunder @justsayin How about making stuff work that they pay crazy high dollars for.... link light rail comes to mind, have you tried to park in Tukwila in the AM? It's full by 7... mass transit isn't mass if the masses can't get on.
 @This_again?  @OrcasThunder  @justsayin Then you would favor spending more on park&ride lots?
 @justsayin No, the reality of this is that we have stretched the tax money so thin that we can't keep up with the work we need to do. People keep crying about taxes, and yet if there is not enough money there isn't enough money.
We have cut past the bone into the marrow - and things that should have been done simply can't be done on a regular basis.
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Is this really the kind of government the tax cutters, the "small government", the "fewer government workers" people want?
Don't blame the "liberals" for this one - WE want to do this work on a scheduled basis, not as an emergency response...
No Orcas Thunder, what we WANT is the monies allocated in a rational manner, with priorities laid such that the EXISTING infrastructure is PMed properly instead of deferred such that it LASTS. As an engineer who used to be responsible for a large plant complex, PM is less money, even over time, than emergency repairs and patch jobs when things fail. BUT most folks cannot see past the end of their noses because the infrastructure HASNT BROKEN YET. Then they are all panicy and running around with hair on fire and surprised when it DOES break.
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The mill I was responsible for used to do the "run til it breaks" gig and then lose lots of product, time and spend gobs of money to fix the broken items. BUT they "SAVED" all this money on maintenance. I showed them the books on the "savings" and showed how it cost 3-7 times the cost over time of properly maintaining and replacing things BEFORE they broke.
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We are seeing the "breakage" mode now with all the deferred maintenance on the highways coming home to roost.....instead of injecting polymer into cracks the panels could be either ground down and skinned or replaced entirely...there are many new concrete products and formulations since those were laid down. No they are not CHEAP...but I'd argue that nearly killing someone due to deteriorations is not cheap either.
 @OrcasThunderÂ
A couple of points....yes they followed after having it beat into them. We were in a time when our demand for product was skyrocketing, but with severe downward pressures on price, AND raw material costs were climbing monthly. We bumped production from 5K doors/week to over 12K per week, so somewhat analogous as we used the same machinery.
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I understand about mass transit...I'll opine that Japan is doing it RIGHT for trains, based on my extensive experience using the system around the Nagoya Metro area. We need to be looking that way, not what the local Lt Rail is doing. The whole politically motivated (IMNSHO) deal with stopping short of the airport was CRIMINAL. We NEED to place a medium rail transit system in tandem with our highway arteries to take advantage of the existing infrastructure to get folks TO those arteries.
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I'll also note that the DOT and its contractors are, in many cases, WASTE incarnate. The experiences with the DuPont interchange should be used as lessons learned and taken to heart...instead they have apparently largely been ignored.
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I also remember the approximately 20 years where the DOT did little apparent capacity work.
 @Woodswalker I agree, PM is important.
A question - after you should them the errors of their ways, did they follow your advice?
One difference between your situation and that of the highways is that the mill probably doesn't have to face an ever increasing utilization like the highways do from more cars always fighting for the same space on the roadway.
Our freeways are already well past their design limits. When I was with WSDOT, most lanes were thought to be capable of no more than 1000 vehicles per hour - now they are measured closer to twice that...and yet we are constantly adding more traffic than capacity...and only the extensive use of technology has managed to allow us to even attempt to keep up. For those who question that statement, take a look at the before and after graphs in Figure 9 on page 15 of http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/5FF329ED-A840-4F8A-A798-468948BEE80B/0/Maximizing_Highway_Capacity_PM_finalvsn.pdf - clearly ramp metering made a huge difference in how bad the rush hour traffic is in the Seattle area.
The same arguments can be made to support newer efforts such as ST & higher Metro transit services. Those who see this otherwise are simply blind to the realities of traffic in this area.
The fact is, while it IS vital to keep the roadways in good order, so is keeping the efforts to maintain the levels of capacity. And obviously, when the funding for both are cut there have to be compromises. When the cuts are as deep as they are now, neither need can be met properly.
@justsayin Â
You make a great point and I agree with you 100%. Where are all of the taxes we pay going? Why aren't the roads being repaired? Could it be the mass transit and bike lanes taking front seat to the system? The State agencies should put the proper road repair FIRST on the list. I guess they will just wait for a loss of life before they get the message.
@ObsidianOne But then who will give them bonuses? (rolls eyes)
 Get rid of davis-bacon act and prevailing wage bs and there would be plenty of money to fix all the roads.
WSDOT wInter snow plows operate outside of their designed use all the time throughing walls of slush gravel and snow into on coming traffic . You would think WSDOT would do something about that !
 @armchairquaterbackÂ
I agree with this. Â A few years ago my Wife and I were driving west on I-90 heading towards Issaquah during the winter months. Â There was snow at snoqualmie.
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Anyway, we were well below the snow-level, hadn't seen snow for several miles, but in the middle lane ahead of us is a WSDOT sand-truck spewing sand out both sides of the truck into ALL lanes, the truck was also traveling at over 60mph. Â There was no way to avoid the spewing sand, so every car had to get sand blasted in order to pass him. Â Our car suffered dozens of sand nicks on the front end after passing them. Â
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I still have no idea why the sand truck was in the middle lane of a dry road going 60+mph spewing sand in all lanes.
 @Landshark First, why were you passing the sanding truck in the first place? If it was sanding below the snow line it was most likely due to expected freezing temps that make the roads icy. Plus, if you had to exceed the speed limit to do so, any damage is your own fault.
i'd say just cut the DOT staff to save some $$. its great seeing a gang of like 12 of them standing around the side of the road as one or two guys do actual work. i'm sure upper management is even worse.
@SwampThing I see this every day at the 520 interchange. Two guys exactly working while 6 stood on a street corner a half block away having a chat. Three other guys standing there watching the bulldozers.
 @Ducky  @SwampThing Most likely those are contractor's people, not WSDOT.
And, since WSDOT does not build the highways, their only job there is to inspect - which involves a lot of standing around looking at what the contractor's people are doing. WSDOT is not ALLOWED to perform construction work on a project.
Welcome to Washington
Like a dog chasing it's tail, the "more accidents" to come will result in huge claims/lawsuits against the State which will be more expensive than fixing the problem.
Translation...we're going to need to tax the doodah outta people so we can spend millions studying the problem for about 5 years, before deciding that we no longer have the funds to actually do anything about the roads...
I am glad to see we have a few WSDOT employees trying to hijack the thread because it means they are concerned. For those people please link the WSDOT budget for the last 10 years and prove the budget has been cut. State revenues have increased at least 5.5% a year during the recession and they are expected to go up to 7% this year. You have no chance of proving the budget has been cut but please try.
 @norwester Interesting use of "10 years".  You obviously know it was 13 years ago that we slashed WSDOT's budget by more than 1/3, by voter mandate with the passage of I-695.  That was where it started, which you are trying to avoid by putting the cutoff at 10 years ago.
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In the meantime, we passed gas-tax increases twice, with all of the proceeds going to new construction, NOTÂ maintenance. Â The legislature has diverted funds from other sources to pad the WSDOT budget again, but here's the big not-so-secret issue: Â Inflation is out of control in the road-construction industry. Â We are paying nearly 2.5 times per lane-mile of roadway now than we were in 1999, when the budget axe fell. Â Road-construction costs have been growing FAR faster than general inflation, mostly due to skyrocketing materials costs.
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Yet, despite the rising costs and our growing maintenance backlog, WSDOT just keeps building new lanes, so local legislators can show their constituents how they're bringing home the bacon.  We're getting 2 more lanes on 520 that have nowhere to go when they hit I-5, digging the widest deep-bore tunnel in the world for 99 that the Mayor doesn't even want and no one is going to use (no exits!) , and a slew of smaller extravagant widening projects all over the state.
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Meanwhile, there are massive 10&12-lane stretches of I-5 that have needed a complete resurfacing for 20 years, but no one wants to fund it because it's not big and showy like a new interchange. Â The cost of that paving is only going to go higher the longer we put it off!
All we need to do is keep the freaks off the road
 What happened to the .09 cent a gallon tax that was forced upon us a few years ago?? That money was supposed to go towards road maintenance and construction. What have we got for roads?? A bunch of cobblestone and broken pieces of asphalt!!
 @gangdestroyer It's spent.  It all went to new construction, not maintenance. Â
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Also, road construction costs have more than doubled in the past 10 years... the gas tax has not.
@gangdestroyer They gave that money to KGM, didn't you know?
Plus dont forget the nickle they asked for and got just before coming back just 2 years later for 9 1/2 cents. They have the money. Done let them fool us again into thinking that they dont.
 @gangdestroyer 9 hundredths of a cent? No wonder we can't afford to fix the roads. :)
I enjoying hearing/reading how bloated government is the blame for everything. In a way your right, the government was handed over to a guy name Bush, he found we had a surplus and sitting pretty good. Well he decided and in his own words, ""This surplus is not the government's money," he said yesterday in Council Bluffs, Iowa. "It's the people's money. And I believe we ought to listen to the people of America and share that money with the people who pay the bills."
Now he cuts taxes, give away a drug program and starts 2 wars. OOPS, could have used that surplus now, no it's okay, he barrowed from China. So went from healthy to poor under the GOP government.
Meanwhile, jobs are slowly heading overseas and the middleclass rise in income flatlines, he deregulates all the banks and they gamble away almost all of our money. All this crap trickles down to the states and they start losing revenue becuase people are losing thier jobs-by the way, Obama has not been elected yet.
So now the roads can't get fixed because the bloated government is over taxing us. Really-so if your a miltitary veteran, this is not for you, the parents whos kids went to war, this is not for you. You folks whom don't want to pay taxes and made no financial aid to the war effort, no sacrifice other than go shopping like Bush told you to, you ben be ashamed of yourselves. The people of this country owes the government for 2 wars, services rendered to insure your safety while you were safe at home in the USA. I get very angry at those whom wave the flag and parise the troops but don't want to pay taxes. War are not cheap and the other cost you can't put a price on it.
1) GWB was handed a deficit. To say otherwise is to lie.
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2) GWB didn't start the 2 wars. Afghanistan was the stomping ground for Al Qaeda. Despite all the attacks on the WTC ('93), embassies, tourists, etc, etc, GWB's predecessor didn't do a damned thing about the muslim terrorists. Iraq, in hindsight only, may be considered a wash. Not a loss like Vietnam. And, the case can still be made that is was justified. Today, Syria is threatening their folks with death by WMD (chemicals). Same as Saddam used on the Kurds.
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3)Â BJ Clinton signed NAFTA.
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4)Â BJ Clinton signed permanent MFN with Red China, thereby sending millions of our jobs there.
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5) BJ Clinton signed the legislation deregulating the banks. odumbo signed Dodd-Frank. Since then, the top banks have only gotten richer and are gambling ever more money on risky ventures.
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6) More people are on SocSec disability than live in any of 39 states. The number has more than doubled on odumbo's watch. Also, he has eliminated the work requirement for welfare. Unarguably, odumbo is the king of welfare and handouts.
@hi_veritas It figures this is the stand you would take. The funny part is, you GWB is the liar, after all he said he inherited a surplus. The question wasn't if we should go to war or not. It was how we were going to pay for it.
I see you are not good with facts. Welfare went down under Clinton and started rising again under GWB. It continued becuase up to 700,000Â jobs a bmonth we going out the door in the last months of GWB.
This should be enough for to twist back on the dems. Are you a FOX news wannabe?
@leroy_veritas
Another "veritas"...downside of cloning...and SG1 thought it had problems with Ba'al...Â
03/27/2003, Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Defense Secretary "Thereâs a lot of money to pay for this ... the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three yearsâ¦Weâre dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.â
http://zfacts.com/iraq-war-quotes
If "freeing a country" were the prime justification, there are many far more better candidates.
And please, document those terrorists who were funded by Saddam...
 @snoopy84  @hi_veritas "It was how we were going to pay for it"
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Oh, don't you remember? The oil profits were going to pay for the war in Iraq...
We were going to invade a country that was not a threat to us...and then tax them for the cost.
Hah! The transitistas think that all drivers should be punished by road debris for not riding light rail. Â
 @John Bailo I would be delighted to ride light rail, or even a bus, if they went anywhere remotely near where I'm coming from or going to. >8-)
If anybody else out there has any pieces of the freeway, could you please return them or just go ahead and glue it back in, if you don't mind.
Yes, what did happen to all that money that was fed into the transportation system over the last 20 years? 100's of millions of dollars on what? No matter what you think the problem is inefficiency and bloated government oversight is probably the culprit. Oh and by the way nothing got done before Initiative 695 or 1695 so blaming it on that is delusional.
 @Grumpa I could provide factual evidence to refute your claims. Especially the fact that I-695's passing cost the community of Port Townsend dearly when there was no ferry after WSF had to pull the Steel Electric ferries - all because I695 cut revenue that was directed for their maintenance and upkeep.Â
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Thank you Tim I'm-an-Idiot!!!
How about keeping your contractors and State road crews out of the coffee shops and on the roads repairing them before they become "freak accidents"?
 @Deanotoyou perhaps we could require daily floggings as well?
 @TruthinAdverts Well... at least until MORALE improves!!!