Poor road conditions and a million ''potholes!

Papa Benito

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Dec 5, 2006
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Why? A country with possibly 20% unemployment, why isn't there a serious effort to repair the roads. Billions are spent on a subway, but roads worsen every day. How stupid is this government? I left the country 7 months ago. There is a most noticeable severe deterioration in all the roads!
 

whirleybird

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Feb 27, 2006
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Why? A country with possibly 20% unemployment, why isn't there a serious effort to repair the roads. Billions are spent on a subway, but roads worsen every day. How stupid is this government? I left the country 7 months ago. There is a most noticeable severe deterioration in all the roads!

Sadly, the results of Noel, Olga and more recent rains have taken their toll on every road and byway in the past few months. The volume of severe rainfall has indeed taken its toll and now it is even more challenging to 'dodge' the potholes but at least it keeps the speed down...
 

CFA123

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May 29, 2004
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I left the country 7 months ago. There is a most noticeable severe deterioration in all the roads!

I don't doubt your experiences reported last year, as a matter of fact I believe the situations you encountered... but after all of your problems in DR, you've come back for more & are bitching about it?
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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Roads fail here in a very short time fail when there is any type of consistent rainfall. The problem is they don't know a lot about the subgrade preparatiuon and compaction. An asphalt Road in the States is expected to last 7 years. Here, 17 months seems to be the norm(if that and no I am not kidding).
 

PICHARDO

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May 15, 2003
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Roads fail here in a very short time fail when there is any type of consistent rainfall. The problem is they don't know a lot about the subgrade preparatiuon and compaction. An asphalt Road in the States is expected to last 7 years. Here, 17 months seems to be the norm(if that and no I am not kidding).

Just don't take the Major Deegan without a 4x4 to make your point; else your kidneys will do the talking at the Doc's office... LOL!!!

And don't get me started on mid and lower Manhattan!!!!
LOL!!!!

Yes, most of what you said rings a bell here and there...

But to me it's more about maintenance!!!
They lack it 100%...

They just did I-4 here in Downtown Orlando and just this past month, we had some nasty potholes that felt like they got a thing for my car...
Sometime later on the week, we had to bitch a little as we slowed for repairs crew, again! But this time it was a quick patch job...

Need I say more?
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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Just don't take the Major Deegan without a 4x4 to make your point; else your kidneys will do the talking at the Doc's office... LOL!!!

And don't get me started on mid and lower Manhattan!!!!
LOL!!!!

Yes, most of what you said rings a bell here and there...

But to me it's more about maintenance!!!
They lack it 100%...

They just did I-4 here in Downtown Orlando and just this past month, we had some nasty potholes that felt like they got a thing for my car...
Sometime later on the week, we had to bitch a little as we slowed for repairs crew, again! But this time it was a quick patch job...

Need I say more?

Hey, you and I know there is no comparision between the streets of Orlando and here in the DR. I lived there 5 years before moving to Santiago and still have my business there. The number of holes you might encounter on any given day in the Orlando area is about equivalent to the number of holes on the street in front of your house in the DR. Furthermore, a hole is patched in Orlando within a matter of days, here in the DR they aren't patched untila car cannot physically pass over them.

...And no in 95% of the road failure cases it doesn't have to do with maintenance here in the DR, it has to do with the subgrade preparation - this I am sure of as I am a civil engineer and this is part of my job to know.
 

PICHARDO

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May 15, 2003
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OK!
So you mean to say that the roads around Emmett, Neptune, off the OBT to name a few are NOT with potholes????
That they're patched within a given time is not on discussion, but if they weren't as such, then they most certainly look and feel like any DR road in no time!!!

They just finished doing some work around Church (near the stadium) and they didn't compact shyt there, just the same lame system they use in the DR as well!!

We're not talking Interstates here, but local roads and to be honest, just ask me to take pics of pot holes of some of the mentioned roads and will gladly do so for you...

I never compared quantity, but maintenance quality...

Unless of course we're talking International Drive, Sand Lake, Down town Disney, Colonial, Semoran, etc...

I won't argue with a civil eng about technical issues because you'll whip my behind in a sec, but give the man a bone, and admit that maintenance plays a major role once the pot holes show up, and up, and up...
 

PICHARDO

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And the only reference I made to Orlando was about I-4's quick repairs of potholes after the cold showers we got this year's end...

I clearly made the comparison to the Major Deegan of NYC... And NYC as a whole!!!
So it means that NYC uses DR's system to build the roads....? Potholes and all...
 

A.Hidalgo

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Apr 28, 2006
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Don't exaggerate PICHARDO. You're funny comparing the roads of NYC with the roads in DR. Yes there are potholes here, but again its a city of over 8 million people, just about the islands population. I drive here all the time and yes on the Major Deegan and the comparison just makes me laugh.:laugh:

btw my kidneys are just fine.;)
 
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mart1n

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Jul 13, 2006
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It was quite a laugh reading about the complaints of potholes when in the countryside of the DR the rivers take out the whole road. And every creak crossing would wash away a car when it rains. I live in the countryside and it?s common to see trees across the road after a rain. Potholes are so common we don?t discuss then.
 

Kat1144

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Nov 23, 2007
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Potholes are just inverted speed bumps.. lol

Pichardo.. you know you miss those potholes back home and you want to say Orlando has a few.

Please take pics and share them
 

bachata

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Aug 18, 2007
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It was quite a laugh reading about the complaints of potholes when in the countryside of the DR the rivers take out the whole road. And every creak crossing would wash away a car when it rains. I live in the countryside and it?s common to see trees across the road after a rain. Potholes are so common we don?t discuss then.

Yes I agreed with you. I think is more important to fix the big hole in the " High ways" and the secondary roads.
I had seem many people killed by accidents in the intersection from Altamira to puerto Plata driving on night time . And the problem had been there for years and the government never finish rebuilding the road.

JJ.
 

PICHARDO

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May 15, 2003
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Potholes are just inverted speed bumps.. lol

Pichardo.. you know you miss those potholes back home and you want to say Orlando has a few.

Please take pics and share them

Will do, as well as the surrounding scene of the street, as any pothole anywhere can be photographed and later said to be here or there...
 

Papa Benito

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It is incredible how these conditions are accepted

Then, some of you ''shoot the messenger''. More importantly, I would suggest than any of these politicians, seeking the Presidency, could use the subject of Road Repair, as a major plank in his platform. Certainly, it would significantly enhance his electability, and could help topple the hapless Leonel!:glasses:
 

Lambada

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Mar 4, 2004
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Equally incredible that some might labour under the misapprehension that aspirants to the Presidency actually have a 'platform'...........:cheeky:

Now you be sure to pass your suggestions on to MVM & Aristy..........
 
Feb 7, 2007
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The problem is they don't know a lot about the subgrade preparatiuon and compaction.

I don't know if they "don't know" or "don't want".

I have recently read an article about highway costs for highway SD-Samana. The whole highway (200 km+?) costs about the same as 20-30 kms of highway built in Europe - where it's about 10 million Euro per km for a 4-lane highway built on average terrain (not too much mountains, no tunnels, etc.) - as far as costs in Europe. Here in DR they plan to build the whole SD-Samana highway with some 500 million dollars (330 mil. Euro)
 
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DunHill

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Just go from Sabana Grande to Los Platanitos and you will follow the "highway", if you get lost, do as the locals, follow the powerlines.
BUT
This project started already in 1996-2000 , halfway is a parkinglot with completely rotten heavy $$$ machinery.

NOW in 2004-2008 , this highway is "invented" again.

Don't start bashing me again with "prove-it prove-it than", just take a car and try to follow that sand path through mountain-jungle land
The begin and end looks real neat and new, so you need to follow it completely to get the point.

BTW nobody here noticed that the distances between the plates/decks on the Elevador are growing wider, on some places you can already look through the road , people walking under this construction are already complaining that is is "raining" concrete parts .... it is just a warning ...

"prove it - prove it than" -> here too: just go there and see/feel/enjoy
 
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DrChrisHE

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Jul 23, 2006
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Potholes: NYC, DR debate, DR Pop

Don't exaggerate PICHARDO. You're funny comparing the roads of NYC with the roads in DR. Yes there are potholes here, but again its a city of over 8 million people, just about the islands population. I drive here all the time and yes on the Major Deegan and the comparison just makes me laugh.:laugh:

btw my kidneys are just fine.;)

Since you went back to change the population, I believe the DR's pop was just updated to 9.7 million (well over the 8 mill in NYC), I figured I'd make it REALLY accurate.

Next, having learned to drive in NYC, I must say that it was reasonably good training for the DR. The difference being that the potholes there have to deal with rain that freezes and then the ice expands. What excuse does the DR have? Does the salt degrade the asphalt?

Now, having said this about NY vs. the DR, I JUST learned that using one's horn in midtown Manhattan was made ILLEGAL! CAN YOU GUYS IMAGINE trying to enforce that one here? LOL.

If you want more pothole discussion...there's quite a debate going on in the S. Coast forum about the high-end condos lining the pothole ladened streets of Juan Dolio. There are beautiful artist's renditions of what JD will look like and of course the potholes are all replaced by freshly paved streets. Right now one has to cross over the median several times to get to a drivable side of the street when driving the distance of the road in "New" Juan Dolio. Even with a Jepeta, if you don't straddle some of the holes JUST RIGHT your bottom carriage of the vehicle makes a tooth gritting scrap. Of course there's the hazard of trying to ride a bike or walk. So, for those who live in less "developed" areas, don't feel discriminated against...even the relatively wealthy areas have really cr*ppy roads that make this NY-born and raised DR resident curse right and left.

Oh yeah, if your kidneys were NOT fine, you'd know about it by driving here too (great kidney test). Having had two surgeries this Fall, I dreaded being a passenger going down those streets. In fact, my surgeon actually thinks some of my stitches SPLIT as a result of the roads. (I was buckled in, with pillows and a very considerate driver but unless he was going to physically get out and carry me down the street, there's no way to avoid the potholes.)