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CARS TAKE A POTHOLE BEATING GETTING TO THE
PITTSBURGH VA -- City is paving elsewhere. "I
guess
they think they can get a lot more political bang
for
their buck if they go to more high-profile
areas."
A vehicle averts one of many potholes
covering a three-quarter-mile stretch of Highland Drive, which is
the only way veterans can reach the VA hospital in Lincoln-Lemington.
(photo: Shannon Rengers / Tribune-Review ) |
For more than 25 years, the city of Pittsburgh
has ignored this street going to the VA. Why? Because the
majority of people who use the street are veterans who don't live in
Pittsburgh.
Story here...
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_566354.html
Story below:
-------------------------
Road to VA hospital on Highland Drive a rough
stretch
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Patients must endure a bumpy ride to reach the Veterans Affairs hospital
in Lincoln-Lemington.
A pothole-laden three-quarter-mile stretch of Highland Drive is the only
way about 100,000 outpatient veterans and their relatives can travel to
the hospital and nearby senior care facility each year, said Pittsburgh
Councilman Patrick Dowd, who is having trouble persuading city officials
to repave the road this summer.
"These are people who served us, and we need to make sure we're serving
them," Dowd said.
Dowd said Public Works Director Guy Costa told him that finding the
roughly $250,000 needed to pave the road is not a priority because it is
used mainly by people who don't live in Pittsburgh.
"With the current funding, we are unable to pave
Highland Drive unless we don't pave 1 mile of other streets," Costa wrote
in a letter to Dowd.
Costa declined to comment when reached by phone.
Pittsburgh began its seven-month paving program April 11 with a $10
million capital budget allotment for street paving. Crews plan to
resurface 51 miles of the city's 861 miles of streets, up from 39 miles
repaved last year, according to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's office.
"I've been here since 1980, and it's been the same. The concrete is
separated, there are potholes -- it's deteriorated," Bill Leuthold,
program coordinator at the VA hospital, said about the road. The hospital
employs 870 people.
 "I
guess they think they can get a lot more political bang for their buck if
they go to more high-profile areas," Leuthold said. "It's just really bad.
The road causes a kind of pounding effect. It's like driving on a railroad
track."
Leuthold said Highland Drive is particularly dangerous for drivers in the
winter when ice accumulates because of poor drainage and the many cracks
and potholes.
Ravenstahl renewed a promise Wednesday to computerize the city's
street-paving system next year so streets will be selected based only on
need.
Some council members -- including Ravenstahl's political rival, Councilman
Bill Peduto -- have complained that the current method of street paving
favors the politically connected.
"Next year, we will take subjectivity out of the process, using even more
data-driven knowledge to optimize each maintenance dollar spent on
paving," Ravenstahl said.
The mayor announced he has awarded a $35,000 contract to CarteGraph
Systems Inc. of Dubuque, Iowa, to create a computer database of city
streets and their conditions.
Paving will be done based on a score each street receives on a 1-to-100
scale once the computer system is ready, the mayor said.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at
jboren@tribweb.com or 412-765-2312.
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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