Incompetant road maintenance crews?!? Ive worked for street maintenance here in Anchorage for some years now and let me pass on some facts for you. We operate on a limited budget that comes out of the general fund of approximatly 6 million dollars a year that covers wages for 90 guys, equipment costs, parts, tools, materials for jobs, etc, etc, to provide road service and maintenance for you year round 24 hours a day. Our budget is subjected to changes, cuts and is not enough to accomplish everything we want at all.
In winter, we have 72 hours to plow over 1100 lane miles of road here in town that is always increasing yet we still do it in 72 hours. The drawback is harder wear and tear on equipment and personnel which in turn causes equipment to break down or wear out faster and personnel to get injured to keep your roads clear. Our budget also does not increase to meet this need. Did you think about that?
The state takes care of all the arterial roads thru Anchorage, not us. The state has 8 to 10 guys to do the following streets:
New seward, Old seward, A street, C street, Dimond, Rasberry, Tudor, Northern Lights, Benson, Minnesota, Abbott Loop, Omalley, Huffman, Dearmoun, Rabbit Creek, Etc, Etc,...
Thats plowing snow, asphalt repair, guardrail repair, and any other maintenance needed. Just 8 to 10 guys, thats it. thats a LOT of work. Did you think about that?
We do all the secondary roads, neighborhoods, school roads, dead ends, alleys, etc, which we do all the drainage work, asphalt, concrete, rebuilding RAP roads, crack seal, chip seal, plow and remove snow, sanding, sweeping, brushing, pothole patching, guardrail repair, sidewalk snow removal and sweeping, etc, etc and have to do this with traffic in the way at all times, parked cars in the road instead of the empty driveways in front of the house, speeding drivers, pedestrians and so on. We work 24 hours a day FOR YOU. Working on holidays FOR YOU instead of being with our families on those special occasions. We get yelled at for being in the way when we are trying to clear the roads FOR YOU, repairing the roads FOR YOU, getting cussed out and threatened for just being there doing our job FOR YOU. We get called out for work at a moments notice FOR YOU.
I personally would like to know where you get this idea that we are incompetant when I believe you dont have one clue as to all of what we do and your above statement just goes to show that some people dont think or research the facts before they speak. Have you worked for the state or city in road maintenance? If you did, you would not have made such an obviously ridiculous statement. I could go into explicit detail for hours as to what we do but I have to go to bed now because if it snows enough today, they will call me into work tonight instead of me enjoying my weekend.
If you dont like the roads here, move to a different state with perfect weather that doesnt destroy the roads every year.