Texas Roads Suck

[jmel]

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Christ...you never realize how bad roads are until you cruise around them in an 84 year old vehicle. Dallas area highways are completely F'ing up my car.

Hit two major bumps on I20 today - felt like rear end went airborn. Now my deck lid won't stay closed - and the passenger door won't stay closed. In addition to that, there are all sorts of squeeks and rattles coming from the car. Always had an occasional squeek, but nothing like it is now.

Was ****ing off the wife, and ****ing me off even more. Today, I have damned the roads, and damned the cities who don't maintain them properly, and have damned the city planners for accepting the lowest bid from crappy contractors, and have damned crappy contractors who can't build a descent road, and have damned overweight trucks that tear up the road.

Did i leave anybody else out?

Drove I30 from Rockwall in far NE Dallas all the way to the other side of Fort Worth yesterday and back with no problems other than being cold. The trip from Rockwall to Waxahachie jacked my car up this evening.

I20 sucks, I635 has its share of bad patches, I35 from Dallas to 114 area is pure hell. 190 even sucks at bridge transitions. Downtown Dallas isn't even drivable in the car - Main St about killed us last night. How does a city this big let the roads go to hell like this?

Maintanence crews & city management should be forced to drive around in some of our cars for a week to see how bad the roads have gotten. We may not be feeling this hell on our daily drivers, but you know the cars are feeling it with increased wear and tear.

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[EnglishBob]

I was in Dallas January/February last year and only have one comment.
Shut ya whining,drive up here or most of England,drive a little then realise how lucky you are.

 

[donsrods]

I have friends from England and they tell me the roads here are heaven compared to what you guys have over there.

I know what you mean about bad roads in an old straight axle hot rod. Every year when I go to Turkey Run in Daytona there is a stretch of road in Orlando that is white knuckle time the whole way. I have had it toss my rod sideways on some of the uneven road surfaces and bridge joints.

Part of the problem is that all the States are feeling the bad economy and are cutting back on fixing the infastructure. Look for it to get a lot worse.

Don

 

[earthman]

What can you do to make your car smoother riding? The car may have much stiffer springs than it needs.
( if we continue to think what we have always thought we will continue to get what we have always got)

 

[CR55]

What don said is true. Here in little ol Delaware, our roads aren't too bad. They usually have the normal potholes in the winter but are quickly repaired. Now the money is running out rapidly because of the misspending that they caught deldot doing. Supposed to be a huge deficit coming. They've fired a bunch if them after catching them giving away money and jobs to friends, but now they don't know where to get the money to do repairs and to finish the projects that are started!!! Should get interesting....cr

 

[Sam_Fear]

Yeah, you think you have it bad, head north. The winter salt erodes the pavement into huge chuck holes - some 6" deep and a foot around - and then the spring thaw heaves the blacktop and shatters concrete. It's rough on pick-up truck suspensions even.

Not much the crews can do but temporarily fill holes until the season is done. It's like driving through a mine field all the time - you never know if you'll be able to dodge 'the big one' in time. I've probably hit a half dozen this year that were as bad as hitting a curb at 45mph - but I don't slow down in my beater truck.

EnglishBob is in Canada.

 

[LilD]

I have two options to get to work. The highway that has about a dozen buckles at the joints big enough to literaly bounce the rear wheels of my truck off the ground or the service drive that is like a moto cross track ryhtm section. Like many midwest states, our roads get tore up big time in the winter. They grind the high spots in spring/summer and throw cold fill in the pot holes. Crappy band aid fixes that some times make it worse.