How Much Did This Failure Cost Us? Has Rob Perry or His Foreman Learned Anything From It?

On Wednesday, December 18th, I noticed a DPW crew filling in a large hole in the westbound lane of Columbia Street at 4th Street that had been excavated several days earlier and where, during the same time, trucks and cars had not been allowed to drive while work was taking place (one lane was available through the intersection).  That day or the next, I believe, the final coat of asphalt was installed.  Trucks, tractor trailers and cars soon began rolling over it.  DPW was done with that project, it seemed.

Not even two weeks later, nearly all of that asphalt has turned to mush, and the asphalt that isn't mush yet is soft enough to dig out with a sneaker.  The wavy surface doesn't even look like asphalt -- it appears and feels to be more like a mix of mud and sand.  Tire tracks and footprints are left easily.  Pretty soon it will be a fucking mess, and a dangerous one -- riding a bicycle slowly over it slows the bike to a stop, a very strange and uneasy feeling, not unlike walking into quicksand, I suppose.

New DPW asphalt (bought at Colarusso's!),
already a wavy, bumpy, loose mess in need 
of replacement.  Back to Colarusso's with
the checkbook!

Why are there waves of tire prints
crisscrossing the truck route at 4th Street?

Monday

This asphalt never made it to the binding phase. 
Does Rob Perry know why?  Does he care why?

When I took the lead picture, our new DPW foreman, Frank Rogers (standing on the right), asked me, "Why you always takin' pictures?"

Though I did not respond, I could have told him the truth:  "I don't know, Frank, let's just say I have a hunch."

DPW used either cold patch asphalt or hot mix patch to cover the excavation.  Hot mix asphalt is the normal go to -- which Colarusso uses for our streets every two years and which DPW uses to fill potholes -- but it is not suggested in cold temperatures, nor is it readily available this time of year, if at all.  If DPW used cold patch, they failed at it.  Miserably.  I would love to hear Rob Perry's response to a few simple questions from a council member asking why this asphalt job of his failed so quickly, what kind of patch he used, and how much the city spent in materials and labor to create that failed patch job.  Oh, and also, if he has learned anything from the experience.

Laying asphalt in the cold of winter is not easy or recommended.  But it is possible to do well when it's a necessity.  Of course, you have to know what the hell you are doing.

Less than 24 hours after the pictures above were taken, the wave in the westbound lane was much more pronounced and more readily felt by passing motorists:

Tuesday

Asphalt is an oil-based material, made up of aggregate (stone, gravel and sand) and the essential ingredient that can bind it all together for years, bitumen.  That's the sticky, petroleum-based stuff that holds the aggregate together (and makes it black), also known as the binder. The oil in the bitumen is supposed to remain in the bitumen and asphalt, keeping the surface hard and impermeable.  When the oil from the bitumen begins to rise to and accumulate on the surface of the asphalt, it's a sure sign that the paving was done wrong, likely too cold, too wet, or both.  One hundred percent wrong!  FAIL!!!!  Two weeks ago, unlike now, it was quote cold.  (My guess is that DPW did not use cold patch.)

This morning, things were really ugly, with plenty of fresh oil on the surface (brought out by last night's rain) indicating that DPW's asphalt patch had no chance to bind to itself from the start.   Oily mush is what we now have.  Look for DPW to give it another try sometime soon by tearing out their two-week-old mushy, cracked, wavy and oily mess of a failure, then heading over to Colarusso for some more hot asphalt.  Will they just do the same thing WRONG again and send us the bill?

This morning, Wednesday.  The shiny stuff is oil that 
should be in, not on, the asphalt patch. Notice the crack, too!

Ringing in the new year with more wasted money and
shit pavement work that should not be acceptable
to taxpayers, residents and motorists, nor to
Rob Perry or Kamal Johnson.  Where is the 
city manager we need so badly?

Who is the pavement expert at DPW?