subject: Street Repair And Servicing: Necessary And Constant [print this page] On of the purposes of city officials besides keeping cities safe and secure is to insure good drivable roads for its citizenry. In less temperate climates this can be a challenge with snow removal and damage done to the streets by snowplows, ice and salt. Heavy trucks are another strain on streets along with heavily trafficked areas. Street repairs are constantly underway causing road blocks and inconvenience to drivers, but these are necessary to ensure safety.
There are many areas of city government that tax payers never see and really aren't too interested in, but road repair and conditions are a visual reminder of the taxes we all pay. People want good, clean, dry, safe, pot hole free streets and they want the city officials to stay current on these projects.
Surface repair and line painting are among the simplest of street jobs, a layer of tar or other adhesive can fix cracks in no time. Resurfacing a street is a one day job with a fresh coat of asphalt applied for smoother drivability. There is often a rotating schedule in place for maintaining neighborhoods and surface streets.
Underneath the roads lies a network of sewer pipes, water pipes, gas pipes and sometimes electrical stations. These must all be accessed at any given time by maintenance crews. Manhole covers, frames, valve boxes, sewer caps, water pipe lids to shield pipes from the elements must all be in place and part of the blue prints before construction begins and readily accessible afterwards. Each of these is crucial to the smooth running of all the utilities in town.
Road repairs are often driven by the need to update and replace utility pipes. As towns grow so do the needs for water and natural gas forcing the expansion of the pipelines to new neighborhoods and increasing the size of the pipelines to old.
Keeping our roads in proper repair is a costly and time consuming endeavor but vital to a well maintained and pleasant community. Municipals are largely responsible for the roads and maintenance of them and tax payers hold them responsible for these duties.
