A Modest proposal to Eliminate Potholes in San Diego City Streets
Or Why Are San Diego Freeways So Devoid of Potholes But City Surface Streets Are So Pothole Intensive?
by John Lawrence, April 18, 2019
There's a simple answer to this question. There are no utility lines running under the freeways so they are not being dug up constantly. But surface streets - that's another situation. They are being dug up constantly to replace sewer lines and to maintain and upgrade various other utilities which run right down the middle or to one side of practically every street in San Diego. The patches they provide once the digging is done do not facilitate the smooth passage of vehicles over them. They've got two methods: run the utilities down the middle of the street so that they can be connected to from both sides. This creates a constant mess. And if they run the utilities down one side of the street, they need to be connected to from the other side by lines going perpendicular to and across the street.
I have the solution to this problem, but it may not be workable except for new streets under construction: run the utility lines down both sides of the street under the sidewalks. Then the streets do not ever have to be dug up and they can be resurfaced with high quality asphalt not subject to potholes in the same way freeways are not subject to potholes. This would be more expensive of course, but not as expensive as continually resurfacing the streets. Except that they hardly ever resurface the streets. They spend millions of dollars on what they call a slurry seal. They fill the potholes and cracks with a slurry which is a temporary solution at best.
On February 20, 2019, local station NBC7 reported, "On the City of San Diego's Get It Done app, there have been a total of 4,573 pothole complaints in the past 30 days." City of San Diego spokesperson Anthony Santacroce released this statement:
"The strong and frequent rains of late have greatly impacted San Diego roadways and led to the creation of an unusually high amount of potholes in a short amount of time. During intense storms like the city has been experiencing weekly, road repair crews that normally patch up more than 100 potholes a day are reassigned to our storm prep and storm patrol to respond to the most critical storm-related issues such as downed trees, flooding and emergency street repair.
During fair weather and less intense precipitation, road repair crews have been working extended hours to repair potholes and are bolstered by additional staff that normally perform larger asphalt repair, concrete replacement and traffic marking maintenance.
We are eager for a break in this rain long enough to allow us to focus all of our efforts on road repair and to demonstrate the hard work and dedication of City staff in continuing to fix the damage this wet season has imposed on our streets. Safe, drivable and rideable roads remain a top priority of Mayor Faulconer and City of San Diego and that is why the city is deploying all available resources to address this issue."
Except it's not a high priority at all. What needs to be done is resurfacing, not patching up, the streets. The utilities need to be moved so the streets don't have to be dug up all the time. Then there won't be so many potholes, cracks, bumps, grooves and fault lines in the first place. How come they can have the freeways so smooth with nary a pothole, but the surface streets are a mess? Youth wants to know.
By the way having double sewer lines running down both sides of the street instead of one sewer line and digging ditches across the street to get to the other side can be accomplished with many fewer transverse connections. When there does need to be a transverse connection, it can be made in the form of a tunnel with the street running over it so that the street does not have to be dug up for this transverse connection either. In fact the lines running under the street in a tunnel do not have to be buried so that they are more accessible in the first place.
So I repeat my question: how come freeways in San Diego don't have potholes but the surface streets are almost one continuous pothole? They need to be resurfaced not slurry sealed.
