Some months ago, probably late march or early April, road crews came in and ripped the asphalt off a stretch of road covering an overpass. Specifically, where Whisman Road goes over Central Expressway and the CalTrain tracks. No big deal, probably routine maintenance work, I figured. A few weeks go by and no crew cmes back to repave; okay, this is probably the busy time of year for them. A few months go by and I start to wonder. November hits and I start getting annoyed.
I actually go over this stretch of road on average once in each direction every day so the sequences of holes and rough concrete does matter. I emailed the Public Works Department at the City of Mountain View. An engineer there responded but said the project was under county control. After a week more, he wrote back with the name and contact information for the person managing the work.
I called there just now and got a load of hooey that adds up to one word: bureaucracy. At its finest, I’m sure. The engineer said that the project was supposed to be routine maintenance on the joints supporting the roadway but when the crew opened things opened, substantial damage was found and requires more work than was budgeted for to correct. Of course there are spending limits, $100,000 in this situation, and the work would cost more than that to complete. The best answer the county department can think of is to leave their mess behind and wait until early next year to write a proposal for another project to fnd the rest of the work. Meanwhile drivers can go spit.
He actually admitted that his department has not even written the proposal for the remaining work yet. What the heck if eight months go by and the thousands of drivers that use this road every day get annoyed and annoyed without so much as a sign to explain things. Yeah, that’s the way we like our government.
BillSaysThis 