Word on the Street Is.....

Christian Baumgarth
Economos
AP English Language
1 November 2012

          As if the traffic in Atlanta wasn't bad enough, reports are coming in about just how many worn down roads and potholes there are in the city and its metro areas that are not being fixed. Atlanta public works commissioner Richard Mendoza says that workers in Atlanta should be doing more than five times the work that they are doing now just to keep up with the usual wear and tear of roads. However, this job would take millions of dollars in tax money to accomplish. He also told reporters that workers pave an average of eighteen miles of road per year when, ideally, the city of Atlanta wants them to work on more than eighty. To meet its current needs, Mendoza says that the program would need ten times the amount of money that it is being given now. However, outside of the city, most other road work plans are beginning to improve
       
          The road work plans of Cobb and Gwinnett counties were each give more than $10 million last year to help rebuild their systems. In Cobb County, Bill Shelton, who is one of the managers of the counties road maintenance group, says that complaints about potholes have cut down twenty percent in the past year. He says that his crews have fixed over 1600 potholes in the county's 2500 miles of road. This inspired the city of Atlanta to want to improve its roads more as well.

          The Georgia Public Works Department claims that it receives about eighty to ninety complaints about potholes on an annual basis. In 2010 and 2011 only 75 percent of these problems were solved within three days. They knew that something had to change. So in 2012, the program made a pact to increase the quality and quantity of the work that they do and were able to solve 91 percent of problems within three days. Also, even though it is not nearly enough, The Georgia Department of Transportation increased the amount of money that it funds this program by over a million dollars. The program used this money to buy to new pothole patch trucks to bring its total to four. Mendoza and the rest of the employees of the program know that this problem will not be fixed immediately, but they hope o continue to grow and one day be able to say goodbye to the problem for good.

McWilliams, Jeremiah. "Th Atlanta Journal Constitution." The Atlanta Journal Constitution. (2012): n. page. Web. 31 Oct. 2012. <http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/atlantas-pothole-and-paving-challenges-cost-taxpay/nSrmZ/>.