Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: MNgopher
In short, the answer is the lack of funding for maintenance of the road network. I don't know the specifics of those states, but can point to the state I live in, MN, as an example of why things are falling apart...
I can go into a long rant about the funding of our road network, but its easiest just to state that funding has not kept up with the need to maintain and modernize. I can already hear the cries that we are overtaxed already, and in many ways, I don't disagree. The problem is where our taxes go - transportation used to be where a big chunk went, but on a percentage basis, that share has been decreasing as we fund a multitude of social and other programs. I won't debate the merits of that here, but just point out that is a problem.
On expansion joints, they are required in concrete to allow the concrete to expand and contract with the changes in temperature. While the actual amount the concrete expands and contracts is relatively small, the forces it generates when doing so are not. Without them, the road would buckle in random locations at random times in a random pattern. (Ever hear about a road buckling in hot weather? Happens all the time here...) Adding the joints in controls this movement, allows the concrete room to move, and essentially creates panels that can move relative to each other. We've even started to do this as preventative work on bituminous roads. Why are they so bad on the roads you describe? No idea. We have significantly changed how our concrete roads are built here, as we used to build them similar to what you described. I can guarantee that any concrete road you've driven on has joints - you just aren't noticing them on some.
On bridge deck approaches, the issues are often differential settlement of the approaches and the bridge itself. The bridge is usually anchored pretty well, but the soil approches often donlt get the same attention. And being different materials and types, they move and settle at different rates, and move at different rates with the frost and moisture changes as well. Paying better attention to them during construction and having tighter specs can alleviate a lot of this - but it costs money to build things right.
We also build roads by low bidder. Contractor comes in, builds the road to spec (or at least if they are honest or get caught trying to cut corners), and walks away. Other parts of the world include the maintenance - giving less of an incentive for the contractor to cheat - since they are going to need to maintain things down the road.
Long story short, we spend a lot of money on roads, but it isn't enough to keep pace with what we have in play today...
The expansion joints I'm referring to are actually on blacktop roads...I haven't encountered them as much on concrete...it's still puzzling as to why they seem to be built into the roads almost everywhere in MI, while they don't seem to be used much in the other Midwestern states I mentioned. What is different about Michigan's soil, climate, or whatever it is that requires them as opposed to other Midwestern states that don't make their roads with them? Or is it less expensive to build the roads with expansion joints as opposed to building them some other way without them?
I'm not a road worker, but I've seen enough being built out of car windows in my life, those blacktop roads you are mentioning have a layer of concrete with expansion joints under the blacktop. Gravel, concrete, blacktop.
Ad to why they're worse in MI, I don't know, but they have been my whole life. We used to rent a house up there for a week's vacation each summer, and you could instantly tell when you crossed the Ohio/ line, just from the road noise and feel...
