The I95 Quick Turnaround Should Actually Infuriate Us All
How many times have you driven on the roads of Philadelphia and thought that your car was about to be swallowed up into the earth? It’s a right of passage every Spring to learn how to maneuver the obstacle course that becomes your daily commute. The holes never seem to get fixed and they apparently multiply like rabbits in the warm weather. Solving this problem has been an issue in this city since I was a child. It’s looked upon as something that is just part of living here and “we’re doing our best”. Well, the actions of the past week prove that “our best” has most certainly never been good enough!
If I have to see our state politicians or the President come in for another back-slapping self-congratulatory press conference I’m going to puke. Please, shower us with praise for responding to one of the biggest road disasters in American history. Look how responsive we are! We are doing everything we can and more importantly spending tens of millions to correct the problem. All of those things need to be done. The undertaking is daunting and I am impressed with the timetable. Last Monday on the show I set the over/under on I95 re-opening at Fan Fest Day 8/26/23. I was the only person who bet the under. We now know that the road should re-open before the 4th of July! How are they doing it?
…
Well, they are focused. They have a huge task and they threw the army at it. They are wallet whipping the problem with round the clock workers. And they used a very creative approach to fix it that had never been implemented before. Again, all very praise worthy tactics. Fact is though, it exposes what has been generations of mismanagement from all of our political leaders and poor use of our tax dollars.
The simple things have long been ignored. You can rebuild full lanes of a major North/South interstate in just about three weeks feet a complete collapse? Yet as we discussed earlier you can’t fix potholes? You can’t get routine road maintenance completed in a timely, efficient fashion? I’ve seen traffic cones up on a Chester County bridge blocking lanes on Route 100 for over a year! Nothing ever gets done. Driving in Fairmont Park is like a video game of dodge the obstacle. Those issues are smaller, fixable and easily attacked. Yet we never see them resolved with a plan that is even half as effective as this one.
Don’t tell me it’s the tax dollars if you haven’t gone and reviewed the tens of millions we budget each year to repair our roads. It’s great to see a quick resolution to the I95 problem, but it’s frustrating when you realize that the smaller issues that impact you on a daily basis are basically ignored.
Sorry politicians, I’ll hold my applause. To see that you have always had the ability to fix our roads but just didn’t have either the plan or the desire will be my over riding takeaway!
DETOUR: Here Are Some Alternate Routes After The I-95 Collapse
