Reply #2: Well, back during your father's time, highway departments were well funded

[skygazer]

And roads were not in nearly so bad the shape they're in now. But traffic has increased probably a hundred-fold since then, the roads are older and they take a huge beating.

I used to work on a highway construction crew (and believe me, I didn't make 15 bucks an hour nor did I stand around. Ever. Even if it may have looked like it).

Between all the new guidelines you have to adhere to (engineers have to inspect every inch of that goddamn road, every time you do about anything to it. So everything shuts down and guys with clean pants and immaculate hard hats come out and tell you that you're 1/4 inch off grade and you have to do it all over again. :nuke: ) and the fact that everything is done on a shoestring budget so that much of the work is bandaid work that will have to be done again next year, yeah - everybody everywhere has construction going on all summer, every summer.

Those bridges that get rebuilt quick when an earthquake hits California are getting repaired out of an emergency fund. Regular work that needs to get done? When I first moved here, there was a washout on the road I lived on - simple job, really. Shore up the slope, concrete berm, redo the roadbed. Took over two years. Fifty feet of road.

Get used to the orange barrels. :hi: