BUREAUCRACY BUSTER

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

When city bus driver Damian DePasquale wrote to Bureaucracy Buster to complain about the condition of North King Street, he described the potholes as so bad that "the moon craters there can be used by NASA for training."

DePasquale should know. Since he spends his afternoons and evenings driving around Honolulu, he sees a lot of good and bad roads.

Potholes on North King Street were so rough some city bus drivers stood up when driving over them. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"You talk about shake, rattle and roll," DePasquale said. "A lot of the bus drivers know to stand up because if you're sitting down, it's really bone-jarring."

State transportation spokes-man Scott Ishikawa said the state does oversee the road in that area. After complaints from residents, including state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, crews put down a temporary layer of paving over the weekend to make it a little better, he said.

"We plan to do long-term resurfacing in that same stretch in January or February after the Christmas break," Ishikawa said.

On O'ahu, potholes are handled by both state and city crews. On the city side, the city Department of Facility Maintenance oversees about 1,280 miles of major roads and an additional 2,152 miles of minor roads.

The city receives up to 10 calls a day on potholes, said Facility Maintenance Director Larry Leopardi.

"The worst time for potholes is in the winter because that's when we have our heavy rains," he said.

But some years are worse than others.

Last fiscal year (July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004), the city patched 70,937 potholes, a 70 percent increase from 40,195 the year before, because of a rainy year that followed a drought, he said.

After heavy rains, Leopardi's crews first work to clean debris out of drainage canals and clear the water off roads. Then they work on the potholes.

Leopardi described seven common pavement problems: Potholes or bowl-shaped depressions; peel-offs: when the surface layer of the pavement comes off; rutting: ruts or vertical depressions, which often show up at bus stops; shoving/corrugation: a kind of cracking that occurs where lots of cars travel; alligator cracks: short interconnecting cracks that form small blocks that look like alligator skin; raveling, when the surface disintegrates to reveal the loose aggregate rock; crack/sealing: the pavement cracks, usually due to aging concrete, movement of the base material or subgrade and slippage.

"Some of these are easy to fix," he said, while others aren't.

Potholes happen when the pavement fails, he said, which sometimes comes from normal wear, and/or lots of vehicles and/or heavy vehicles.

"Every road we have is carrying more vehicles than it was designed for," said Leopardi.

And road repairs disrupt traffic, so it can be tempting to delay projects. "You need to fix the problem, not just throw asphalt on it," he said.

Ishikawa said problem pothole areas usually pop up where the water doesn't drain well from the road, such as Nimitz Highway near Hilo Hattie's, which is scheduled for road work in January or February.

Other areas scheduled for new pavement soon include Kalaniana'ole from Castle Junction to Castle Medical Center; and Kamehameha Highway near Waiahole, probably in the summer, Ishikawa said.

A road's location can also lead to problems, Ishikawa said, such as oceanfront highways with salt air and waves occasionally crashing across the pavement.

DePasquale would like to see more of a government priority on roads, which he sees as a core government service. He said he hit one pothole so hard over a year ago that he had to miss work and go to physical therapy.

"My back was burning so bad that I had to stop and call for another driver," he said. "I was out of work for three weeks."

We would like to do better, Leopardi said, "but it comes down to limited resources." While people understand the need to pay for police, fire and emergency medical services, they're not as sure of roads, he said.

Ishikawa said the state knows that potholes are a problem. He said the DOT is considering hiring a private company to help with maintenance and quick-fix repairs.

"It would go beyond just patching a pothole," he said.

But, he said, "resurfacing is the longtime solution to potholes."

City spokeswoman Carol Costa said the city has made road repairs more of a priority in recent years. In this year's budget, city has set aside $40 million for road resurfacing, she said.

Costa points to improve-ments to Kane'ohe's Ha'iku Road, near Windward Mall, which was recently completed. "It was night and day," she said. "I'm sure people really noticed that one."

If you have a question or a problem and need help getting to the right person, you can reach The Bureaucracy Buster one of three ways.

Write to:

Bureaucracy Buster,
The Honolulu Advertiser,
605 Kapi'olani Blvd., Honolulu, HI 96813

E-mail: buster@honoluluadvertiser.com

Phone: 535-2454 and leave a message. Be sure to give us your name and daytime telephone number in case we need more information.