Potholes Popping Up

The common pothole--and the effort to obliterate it--has inspired everything from careers in politics to angry diatribes aimed at city officials. Politicians learn early that if they want to keep their jobs, the potholes must get fixed and the garbage must get picked up.

The task of filling the cracks--sometimes gulfs--in the roadway has long been Sisyphean. In Orange County, about 26% of all roads are in poor or very poor condition. When a comprehensive study of roads was done two years ago, county planners estimated the cost of fixing all the problem spots would run about $800 million.

In cities from Huntington Beach to Los Angeles, the issue is taken so seriously that there are emergency pothole response teams to deal with calls from residents. And rainy weather this month has resulted in new holes opening up on roads throughout Southern California.

But what is a nuisance and danger to drivers has emerged as one of the most serious policy issues facing public works departments with limited resources and aging city streets.

“You can go out and fill potholes, but there is a larger structural problem with our roads,” said Paul Rodriguez, a local transportation analyst for the Orange County Transportation Authority.

The pothole, he said, is just a symptom.

The gap between road maintenance needs and available financing has prompted an ongoing effort by the California branch of the American Public Works Assn. to lobby for a dedicated funding source for such needs.

“It’s time to reinvest in that infrastructure,” said George Alvarez, city engineer for Santa Ana, a leader in the effort. “In most cities, your pavement management system is your single largest public investment. Even with Measure M and the gas tax, there hasn’t been enough money to maintain our roads.”

Alvarez says the Rebuild California group he is working with hopes to issue a report on possible solutions within the next few months.

It is a problem planners have struggled with for years.

“You’re always chasing the more expensive improvements and doing emergency repair work,” Rodriguez said. “Meanwhile, you are neglecting the roadways that were marginal to start with that are now slipping into poor status.”

Orange County cities get back nearly $70 million in gas tax funds each year that can be used for road rehabilitation. An additional $30 million in Measure M funds--the half-cent tax passed by county voters in 1990 for road improvements--goes back to the cities for such work.

Cities also can compete for additional millions in road improvement funds. A recent call for rehabilitation projects generated more than 300 requests totaling more than $66 million. Transit officials, who say those requests represent only a fraction of the needs, are to decide in June which projects should get part of the $60 million in available federal funds.

In the meantime, cities are hard at work to repair what the stormy weather left behind.

“New ones keep popping up, and we’re scheduling those as fast as we can,” Stanton Mayor Al Ethans said. “This is the season. You get some rain and bingo, there they are.”

Ethans, himself, has been known to report potholes--in particular a major one near a fire station on Pacific Street that by last year was about 2 feet deep, wreaking havoc on motorists.

Workers who went to fill in that pothole discovered a much more serious problem with collapsed pipes under the roadway. In all, it took more than $100,000 to fix.

Engineers and planners say road maintenance is simply an extremely expensive and never-ending task. In an effort to keep up with it, Orange County transit officials have created a grading system for roads, standardizing what previously had been a haphazard evaluation process varying from city to city.

Starting last year, local cities had to meet reporting standards on their roads to qualify for additional funding though the transportation authority. Transit officials hope the new requirements will improve the overall quality of roads countywide.

“We had cities that had not been making a commitment to do repaving and then they came begging,” said Supervisor Todd Spitzer, a transit board member. “That wasn’t fair to the cities doing their part.”

Spitzer and others say the high cost of car repairs make potholes no laughing matter.

“Not putting down $5 of asphalt can literally do thousands of dollars of damage to people’s cars,” he said. “I hit potholes myself and I get very angry. It becomes very expensive personally when the roads are in bad shape.”

It is a sentiment that crosses county lines.

City crews in Los Angeles repaired 200,000 potholes last year. At the rate roads are being repaired, city officials say each failed street could get a make-over every 65 years. Problem: The streets were made to last 25 years.

But Councilman Nate Holden says that while it may be hard to excite constituents about “invisible” issues like planning and policy, problems they can see--like damaged roads--are a different story.

“Let them see a pothole or trash in the street or a mini-mall they don’t like,” he said. “They will demand we do something.”

In that sense, he said, a pothole is never just a pothole.

“You fill the pothole so people can see what you’ve done,” Holden said.

Times staff writer Zanto Peabody contributed to this report.

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Holes in the Road

Rain and roads don’t mix. Potholes can form just a few hours after asphalt roads have been drenched. How it happens:

1. It rains: Rainwater sinks through cracks in old asphalt. Water soaked up by roadbed.

2. Roadbed erodes: Vehicles passing over the road force water through the soggy roadbed, eventually eroding parts of it.

3. Asphalt sinks: Asphalt sinks into eroded portions of roadbed, eventually cracks. Chunks come loose.

4. Road repaired: Holes patched with asphalt.

What Potholes Can Do

Potholes can sometimes cause costly damage to cars. If your car’s steering seems unusual or other problems appear, have it checked.

* Flatten a tire

* Bend a wheel

* Misalign wheels

* Damage shock absorbers or suspension struts

* Damage parts under the car, if it “bottoms out”

Sources: County and city public works departments, Auto Club of Southern California