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SunBreak: The Problem Isn't Potholes, It's Road Maintenance
The Seattle Sunbreak's Michael van Baker---noting slyly that a recent Seattle Weekly
story blaming Mayor Mike McGinn for "pothole claims that [have] increase[d] nearly threefold" during his term surely "has nothing at all to do with Mayor McGinn’s crusade to get the Weekly
‘s parent company to stop profiting from juvenile sex trafficking---makes the case that potholes aren't the problem with Seattle roads; a basic lack of street maintenance is.
The Weekly's story noted that the number of pothole calls to the city have gone up 270 percent in 2010-2011 compared to the previous year, and the cost of filling potholes has increased 241 percent. A few major caveats, though: Winter of 2010 was one of the worst winters, precipitation (snow and rain)-wise, in recent memory. And the increase in pothole claims, after all, translates into an increase in potholes filled---from 6,504 in 2009 to 19,851 in the first six months of 2011 alone. Finally, the year in question runs from July of 2010 through July 0f 2011, whereas previous years ran from January through January, which McGinn's office says skews the numbers.
Citing an estimated $578 million in deferred maintenance to Seattle arterials, van Baker writes,
The other problem is that Bridging the Gap revenues are coming in shy of projections, thanks to property tax revenues that are falling short of what the city expected.
The Weekly's story noted that the number of pothole calls to the city have gone up 270 percent in 2010-2011 compared to the previous year, and the cost of filling potholes has increased 241 percent. A few major caveats, though: Winter of 2010 was one of the worst winters, precipitation (snow and rain)-wise, in recent memory. And the increase in pothole claims, after all, translates into an increase in potholes filled---from 6,504 in 2009 to 19,851 in the first six months of 2011 alone. Finally, the year in question runs from July of 2010 through July 0f 2011, whereas previous years ran from January through January, which McGinn's office says skews the numbers.
Citing an estimated $578 million in deferred maintenance to Seattle arterials, van Baker writes,
that $578 million is disheartening because the Bridging the Gap levy was supposed to catch us up on maintenance. It was to raise $365 million over nine years, with no less than 67 percent of that going for road maintenance. (Over the first four years, 73 percent has gone toward maintenance, per the 2010 annual report.) But the math indicates that we are not catching up; we are falling even farther behind. If after nine years, the city returns to taxpayers with an offer to extend Bridging the Gap “one more time,” who will want to take them up on it?
The fault lies not in our stars, but in the ratio of maintenance spending to new road projects. Until SDOT realigns around an identity as primarily a maintenance department, until the City of Seattle directs and funds SDOT accordingly, we are going to see roads, especially residential and side streets, continue to decline alarmingly. There is no plan for neighborhood streets, and no extra money for them when arterial repaving demand alone outpaces supply. That’s not even getting into the condition of sidewalks around the city.
The other problem is that Bridging the Gap revenues are coming in shy of projections, thanks to property tax revenues that are falling short of what the city expected.
