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Squeaky wheel gets grease
It wasn’t quite the news many had hoped for — no, demanded — but the recent decision to rebuild the roadways in and around the Pontiac Trail and West Maple Road intersection in Walled Lake a year earlier than previously planned qualifies as good news. The scheduling change serves as an example of the squeaky wheel getting the grease. But all the Walled Lake officials, businesses and residents who piped up about the deteriorating conditions need to remain engaged to help ensure the roadway is rebuilt to last.
Following a surge of complaints about a delay in the project, the county’s Federal Aid Task Force Committee was compelled to bump up the project by a year, from 2013 to 2012. Frustrated residents and officials repeatedly vocalized their disgust to the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC), and the collective lament apparently helped in getting the ball rolling on the scheduling change.
In the meantime, the RCOC plans to perform “heavy maintenance” work along the roadways this spring.
While patching up the roads in a few weeks will help, a reconstruction of the roadways close to the intersection — which was last rebuilt in 1994 — should provide a long-term solution to the problem, reportedly common due to cement mixtures used in the 1990s.
The continued lodging of complaints almost certainly won’t put the reconstruction work on the 2011 project list. But it can’t hurt to periodically fire off some letters and/or e-mails so the RCOC knows the situation hasn’t dropped off folks’ radars.
The best time for people to climb back up on the soapbox will be sometime next year, when a public hearing will be held to inform the public about specific project plans. That’s when people can speak up about their displeasure over the previous reconstruction job. The RCOC is aware of the public’s dissatisfaction, but a reminder just prior to the start of work will probably yield a heightened level of attention to even the smallest details, so that a lasting fix is put in place.
One Response to Squeaky wheel gets grease
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Cory
March 9, 2011 at 7:18 pm
“Due to common cement mixtures used in the 1990′s”………… Please… So just where did you get this batch of false information??? The technology to build quality, lasting cement roadways capable of handling changing weather conditions, salt and regular use and abuse has been around and common knowledge for nearly 1/2 a century now. Problem is our beloved, know nothing political officials lay forth what they know is a sub-standard specification for bids on their roadways, then regardless of past performance of jobs done and product offered award road construction projects to the lowest bidder, knowing damn well that the product and service they will provide is sub-standard to the sub-standard specifications laid out in the original bids.
Why….. because such shoddy work becomes a maintenance nightmare that also provides “job security” for government road workers, kickbacks to politicians that award the bids (regardless of a vendors prior shoddy record) and allows the work that should of lasted decades, to fall apart and be re-done (and the same hush money paid to politicians) only a few years later.
Ask any reputable cement manufacturer / provider, and they’ll be quick to tell you that the specs and products provided for public service projects is so sub-standard, that many refuse to bid for fear of ruining their reputation for providing a quality product.