Perils of potholes in area, nation need our attention

One jolting down side of this winter’s relatively mild weather can be seen and felt on many of the aging roadways that traverse the Mahoning Valley. Yes, the perils of potholes have struck harder and longer for many during this season of seemingly never-ending freeze-thaw cycles.

With temperatures seesawing all winter long from subfreezing levels one day to the downright balmy 50s and 60s the next, roadways have been ripe for rapid deterioration. As the Ohio Department of Natural Resources points out, freeze-thaw cycles rank as the primary cause for the vast majority of potholes.

Unfortunately, as Mahoning County Engineer Patrick Ginnetti pointed out to a group of township trustees and leaders earlier this week, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for county road crews to keep up with the growing challenge to fix and fill the ever-expanding roadway craters.

“We’re all trying to do more with less. There’s no one-size-fits-all remedy for this,” he told the gathering at the Boardman Township Government Center in discussing growing problems associated with the county’s aging and deteriorating infrastructure.

“If funding changes don’t occur, we will have to do less and less,” he said.

Ginnetti’s grim assessment demonstrates the need for an infusion of funding into communities for proper maintenance and resurfacing of our aging and increasingly deteriorating surface transportation infrastructure. It also serves as a clarion call for local leaders to continue to find innovative ways to do more work with fewer resources.

To their credit, some in our Valley, region and state have answered that call through such innovative programs as using nonviolent jail inmates to assist in routine patchwork, thus saving the strained coffers the costs of county employee crews. Others, such as Boardman, Canfield and Austintown collectively, have formed partnerships for road clearing and road repaving that use economies of scale to appreciably whittle down costs of increasingly more pricey road-repair resources.

Reimbursement

Motorists can do their part as well by promptly reporting potholes to authorities to help prevent a minor bump in the road from becoming a major sinkhole that does serious property damage, let alone unnecessary personal injury. In Ohio, motorists can also seek reimbursement for the cost of repairs caused by mangled state roads by contacting the Ohio Court of Claims.

Those costs can grow larger than many realize. After all, potholes take their toll in tire punctures, wheel-rim damage, premature wear on shocks and struts, suspension damage, exhaust system deterioration, engine damage and other malfuncations. They also have caused countless deaths and injuries by drivers more concerned about dodging a bump than driving defensively.

Those problems, of course, are hardly unique to the Valley. According to the American Society for Civil Engineers, driving on poorly maintained and potholed roads costs U.S. motorists an estimated $67 billion in additional car operating and repair costs annually.

Given those public-safety risks and costs, nothing short of a major infusion of resources to repair and modernize local, state and federal roads and highways is in order. Ginnetti and others urge Ohioans to contact their state legislative representatives to urge more state support for pothole repairs and general road improvements.

But given the Republican administration of Gov. John Kasich’s strong opposition to tapping into the state’s $2 billion Rainy Day Fund for such needs, it appears as if local leaders might achieve better results through lobbying federal legislators.

The recently introduced Blueprint to Rebuild America’s Infrastructure Act of 2017, championed by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and other minority party leaders, would provide $200 billion to repair roads and bridges across the nation. That represents a significant stimulant to the $68 billion currently spent nationwide per year to keep street surfaces as safe as possible.

Just as we argued earlier this month in support of the Blueprint, Ginnetti told township leaders that they should impress on legislators that well maintained roadways transcend partisan politics. It is a matter of ensuring optimal public safety to Democrats, Republicans, Independents and fringe-party citizens alike.