DOT thought process

On Aug. 21 the Bangor Daily News ran a small news story about a State Department of Transportation official defending the quality of Maine’s roads in the face of a negative rating from a national report. Paul Minor said, “We’ve been doing a reasonably good job, from a pavement-management standpoint … but, everybody has a pet peeve about a particular road.”

Unfortunately for Minor, he is the only MDOT official quoted, but I’m sure he represents the attitude of most of the department’s management. How can the department feel they are doing a “reasonably good job” if everybody has a road with a pet peeve?

In eight years (1982-90), the amount of poorly rated roads decreased by only 93 miles, 5 percent of the 1,735 miles of negatively rated roads.

From 1984-90, didn’t our economy flourish? Weren’t gas taxes and revenues higher than ever before? How is it that the state DOT only improved 93 miles of poor roads?

It appears our DOT has focused more on new roads than on maintaining existing primary and secondary roadways in Maine. Granted, most major roads were well taken care of, but many roads in Maine need much more attention than they receive.

How many years did travelers and commuters experience the awful conditions of Route 1A through Holden, potholes and broken pavement? How about Route 9 east, and Route 3 from Bar Harbor north, and Route 15 anywhere? And these are primary local roads!

How about some of the other roads no less important to these users like Route 46, Route 180 and Route 178, where the roads are narrow, have broken pavement, numerous potholes, and bad culverts and ditching?

Two years ago Maine people said no to the turnpike expansion — the message was to fix the damn roads we already live on! Has the message been interpreted correctly in Augusta?

Nobody wants to say the MDOT does a lousy job and operates ineptly, but there needs to be a different thought process in roadway management. Most employees with the MDOT are knowledgeable and conscientious. Are they being tapped for their potential, are they being managed effectively, or is the public always going to perceive the stereotypical one-person-working, three-holding-up-shovels scenario?

Sure, the Maine DOT has seen cutbacks, furlough days and other restrictions, but these conditions now appear to be reality and should be managed effectively, not used as excuses for not accomplishing the workload. Just because we have more roads than other New England states, we shouldn’t be relegated to second-class citizens. Our road network is more vital to us than other more densely populated regions.

Mainers by nature are used to long distances and frequent travel. It should be a reasonable expectation that the roadway they traverse receives adequate maintenance to complete the journey quickly and comfortably. Tim Plouff Brewer