Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Domino's Pizza fixes streets, fills potholes across America By Alexandra Deabler

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2018/06/11/dominos-pizza-fixes-streets-fills-potholes-across-america.html

June 11, 2018

Domino's Pizza is paving streets across America as part of its "Paving for Pizza" campaign.
(Domino's Pizza)

Domino’s Pizza is hitting the streets to help “smooth the ride home” for deliveries by making pothole and road repairs in towns customers have nominated online.

The “Paving for Pizza” initiative will fill “cracks, bumps, potholes and other road conditions [that] can put good pizzas at risk after they leave the store,” the press release said.

"We know that feeling is heightened when you're bringing home a carryout order from your local Domino's store. We don't want to lose any great-tasting pizza to a pothole, ruining a wonderful meal," said Russell Weiner, president of Domino's USA. "Domino's cares too much about its customers and pizza to let that happen."

So far the pizza chain has helped four different municipalities all over the nation.
(Domino's Pizza)

The pizza chain has already started the road repairs, working with four municipalities including Bartonville, Texas, Milford, Del., Athens, Ga., and Burbank, Calif.

In Milford, Domino’s said its crew helped fix 40 potholes on 10 roads in 10 hours.

“Facing an already harsher winter than usual for Delaware, this is an opportunity to get additional money to stretch our city’s limited resources,” said Eric Norenberg, city manager of the town, on the website, Yahoo reported.

Domino’s Pizza is filling in potholes in towns across the U.S. with a new ‘”Paving for Pizza” initiative. https://t.co/wwLUyrZMl0 pic.twitter.com/rWsSJruMvh
— upgrūv (@upgruv) June 11, 2018

To nominate towns, Domino’s customers can visit the Paving for Pizza website and enter the zip code of their city. If selected, “the city will receive funds to help repair roads so pizzas make it home safely,” the press release stated.

Alexandra Deabler is a Lifestyle writer and editor for Fox News.

The Pothole Facts

Source: https://www.pothole.info/the-facts/

Potholes are the lowly annoyance that in fact cause billions of dollars in vehicle damages and a large portion of highway deaths. Here is a run-down of pothole facts, news and views.

According to the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission of the U.S. Congress, the annual investment required by all levels of government to simply MAINTAIN the nation’s highways, roads, and bridges is now estimated to be $185 billion per year for the next 50 years. Today, the nation annually invests about $68 billion.

The U.S. Congress passed in a rare bipartisan effort (late 2015) the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015, which provides $233 billion for federal highway maintenance over five years. That’s $46 billion per year.

Roads are an integral part of our daily lives

24 million children (one half) of our nation’s k-12 school population ride on 450,000 school buses 180 days per year.
50,000 ambulances make 60 million trips a year.
Trucks carry 32 million tons of goods across the roads every day,
240 million registered vehicles travel 2.9 trillion miles annually.
While potholes can cause hundreds and even thousands of dollars in damage to vehicles, 63% of Americans do not have the cash on hand to pay for those repairs.

The Pothole Facts

Potholes are formed by water, freezing and freeze-thaw cycles, excessive heat, wear and tear – and time.

The areas most prone to pothole development are where drainage is poor (particularly where roads dip, such as the trough under viaducts), where vehicular traffic is greatest – especially heavy vehicle traffic – and where poor maintenance allows small fissures to deteriorate.

The vast majority of America’s highways were built in the 1950s through the 1970s. Most were built to last 50 years. With time, all the factors that compromise pavement add up. By the same token, some roads have lasted much longer than planned in part due to good maintenance.

Potholes are not limited to cities in the Snowbelt. According to TRIP*, the cities with the worst road conditions in the U.S. (population 500,000 or greater) are as follows:

City	Percent of roads ranked as “poor”
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana	64%
San Francisco-Oakland	60%
San Jose	56%
San Diego	55%
Tucson	53%
New York City-New Jersey	51%
Bridgeport-Stamford	51%
Milwaukee	48%
New Orleans	47%
Oklahoma City	47%
Tulsa	46%
Seattle	45%
Honolulu	43%
Sacramento	43%
Concord, CA	42%
New Haven	42%
Riverside–San Bernardino	39%
Springfield, MA	39%
Boston	39%
Hartford	38%

*Source: Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) 2011 annual survey of state transportation officials, based on level of smoothness of pavement surfaces, as reported by TRIP, a national transportation research group (“Bumpy Roads Ahead: America’s Roughest Rides and Strategies to Make Our Roads Smoother,” 2013)

Pothole Economics – Funding and Costs

$2.7 trillion: That’s how much the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) believes it would cost to fix crumbling highway and bridge infrastructure in the U.S.

The average annual cost for vehicle repairs due to rough pavement for individual motorists is $377 – which varies by market. Repairs typically involve tires, shock absorbers, suspension systems, struts, rims, wheel alignment and catalytic converters.

The cost of bad roads to American business between now and 2022 is estimated to be $240 billion, according to the ASCE.

Failure to spend $1 in road repair typically results in $7 of cost five years later. Whole road rebuilding costs 14 times as much as repairs.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce listed the rebuilding of America’s infrastructure as one of their five top priorities in 2012.

The Federal gas tax currently stands at 18.4 cents per gallon, set in 1993. This money is put into the federal Highway Trust Fund, but because the tax was not indexed to inflation its purchasing power has diminished by 48 percent since 1990. States and municipalities add their own gas taxes to cover building and maintenance costs.

A gas tax is just one way to fund infrastructure. In fact, with increasingly fuel efficient and electric cars, a generation (Millennials) that are driving less and owning fewer cars, and even the possibility of drone deliveries, all erode the idea that the future of highway funding is in a gas tax.

Improved fuel economies of all types of vehicles means that less gas tax is collected even while miles driven by vehicles rise. Alternative funding methods are under consideration such as a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) system.

In some areas, road deterioration is so great and repairs unaffordable that they are being returned to gravel.

Personal injury lawsuits due to potholes are very expensive to public and private property owners.

Only about one-third of voter referenda that call for an increase in taxes are passed. Of those that do pass, they are more likely to support funding for education than infrastructure. Failed funding votes to illustrate this were in Missouri in 2014 and Michigan in 2015.

Environmentalists and fiscal conservatives are joining forces in a idea centered around road repair: It’s better to fix what’s there than to build new.

Pothole Dangers

Of approximately 33,000 traffic fatalities each year, one-third involve poor road conditions.

27 percent of major urban roads (interstates, freeways and other arterial routes) are deemed substandard and provide unacceptably rough rides for motorists. Only 31 percent of roads are deemed to be in good condition (source: TRIP, 2013).

Vehicular traffic overall is expected to increase by 25% by the year 2030. Large commercial vehicle traffic is projected to increase over that time by 64 percent.

The grave danger that potholes present to bicyclists can also be costly to municipalities that fail to fix hazardous potholes and face multi-million dollar lawsuits as a result.

Pothole Solutions

The methods and materials used to build and maintain roads – including pothole repairs – are evolving and varied. What works in warmer climates is different from the four-season regions.

In northern climates, most wintertime pothole repairs are temporary, with permanent fixes happening in warmer, drier times of year. Some types of asphalt can allow permanent repairs in cold, wet conditions.

Citizens are taking action and getting involved in pothole reporting through phone apps.

Homeowners can fix the potholes in their driveways – even as a DIY project.

Pothole Funnies

Television comedian John Oliver entertains with a look at how infrastructure lacks sex appeal.

The Daily Pothole takes a humorous approach to tracking the potholes of New York City.

info occasionally reports on the humor of road deterioration. Because if you don’t laugh, you cry.

It's official: New Orleans' potholes worst in U.S., TV show says

Source: http://blog.nola.com/new_orleans/2016/01/its_official_new_orleans_potho.html

January 26, 2016

Justin Cunningham, a British technical journalist and host of the UK Discovery Channel show "Incredible Engineering Blunders,'' recently dubbed New Orleans' streets the worst in the United States.

"When you think of Louisiana, you think of New Orleans and Mardi Gras, but the state has become famous for a whole other reason...Louisiana has the most poorly engineered roads in all of America,'' Cunningham says on the show.

Watch a video from the show of Cunningham intrepidly motoring through what appears to be the rocky terrain of Lakeview and other environs, with snacks and a drink sloshing across his dashboard.

The roads are "chassis smashers,'' he says.