Better Highways

Our highway infrastructure is not holding up. A better way to contract the actual construction may be an answer. I have heard that in Germany, highways are contracted by getting the government performance specs, and then requiring the contractor to bid on ensuring that those specs and the quality of the road surface is maintained for a period of years. So, a bid to keep Route 80 for a length of ten miles pothole free up to a certain diameter of crack and able to shed two inches of rainfall in two hours for ten years is the contract. Obviously the specs would be more detailed in actuality.

The contractor therefore remains responsible for the entire contract period, and the burden is on them to keep the road sound. I see route 287 get repaved and be destroyed inside less than two years as a matter of course. The system is not working.