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Potholes
filled, roads repaved, cars saved
Anybody
else notice the new look of roads around
campus? If you haven't, you're in all the
wrong places. Shiny new blacktop, fresh
stripes and even new concrete at the bus
stop were part of some major road work done
over spring break. It's about time it happened,
and Facilities Management, the people who
keep the campus maintained, deserve applause.
The
most significant work was done at the bus
stop. The bus stop across from Brotman hall
has repeatedly developed increasingly surly
potholes over the years. Though many a driver
took a hard hit to their car's suspension,
no small children were ever swallowed up
by the pits. The situation has grown beyond
the repair capabilities of a day worker.
"We
attempted a few other quick patches that
failed relatively quickly due to bus traffic,"
said Robert Quirk, the director of Facilities
Management. Those "quick patches"
were the cheap asphalt fill jobs that would
wear out in a semester. The idea that buses
caused the problem should come as no surprise
to those students whose weight doesn't cause
the ground beneath them to crack.
This
time, they did it right. Facilities Management
had been planning this for several months,
according to Quirk. All they were waiting
for was enough free time to get in and do
it right. Spring break was the perfect opportunity
to reroute bus traffic and close down major
parts of the campus roads.
Job
number one was the bus stop.
"We
had some undermining of the road from so
much of the rain that we've had," Quirk
said. The result was that they had to dig
up the entire slab, all the way down to
the lowest levels of support material.
Mission
Paving and Sealing of South El Monte won
the low bid for the complete campus job,
priced at around $85,000. For the bus stop
job, they put in a new base, as well as
reinforcing steel bars, before pouring the
new cement.
That
bit of work was done for the paltry fee
of $16,000. We admit that there are those
among us with a more frugal attitude. They
should bear in mind, however, that it's
all very well and good to get more students
on campus. But you can't graduate if you
fall into a bottomless pit trying to cross
the street.
"It
was certainly worth the investment,"
Quirk said. If $16,000 is the price of saving
a small child from drowning in the ponds
that formed in the potholes after a heavy
rain, we offer our enthusiastic support.
There
is still a large pothole at the intersection
of Palo Verde Avenue and East State University
Drive. The pothole is so huge that it is
actually visible in high-resolution satellite
photos of Long Beach. Well, almost.
"The
property line of the state actually extends
to the center of Palo Verde Avenue,"
Quirk said. Since the pothole is on the
far side of the street, the problem lands
squarely in the city's lap.
"The
City of Long Beach has been notified,"
Quirk said. He also noted that if it isn't
filled soon, they will be calling the pothole
repair people again.
Also
seen around campus are a variety of streets
with new blacktop. Called a slurry, such
repaving work is done periodically to keep
the roads solid and the roadbed free of
water. When water does start to get under
the road, it leads to subsidence and minor
collapses. It usually takes a broken water
main or an undiscovered underground river
to create a sinkhole like the one in Sunland
that sent a city worker to his untimely
death two months ago.
Along
with a new slurry comes restriping. Anything
on the road, including gum and dog turds,
gets scraped away in the pre-slurry preparation
process. The usual method is to run an enormous,
Satan-grade wire bristle brush down the
road. It scrapes off the top layer of asphalt,
leaving the straight-line scars you often
see on roads that are being worked on.
The
end result? "We feel that we've got
the safety hazards taken care of, and the
[road] serviceable and safe," Quirk
said.
So
now the campus has a variety of brand new
road surfaces and street painting. It's
about time it happened, and we're sure everybody
who's ever hit the potholes by the bus stop
is glad to see it gone. Keep in mind that
all the other work done will help prevent
such chasms from opening up elsewhere.
Though
the on-campus roads have been repaved, there
is still ample opportunity in this city
to ruin your suspension. Fortunately, there
is a pothole repair hotline. The Long Beach
Department of Public Works can be reached
at (562) 570-3259. A helpful answering machine
will gladly take your description of the
location of the pothole.
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