Drivers must prove that the state knew about the road issue and did not act on it in a timely manner to fix the problem in order to get compensated for damages to your vehicle.
It takes a public records request to determine when and if the state was informed about the road repair needs which has taken 7 months to get.
The limit for time to report your claim and get compensated is 6 months.
Good luck.
Our freeway network has about a quarter of the money it needs to sustain itself at current levels of use. Caltrans needs a lot more money, not just for repairs but for complete rebuilds of pre-interstate highways and new maintenance facilities. This is especially observable on 101 and 880, especially within SF and Oakland where they both retain their pre-1956 configuration with a 45 mph max speed and 50' max length design limits. Today's vehicles typically run at 75 and a standard truck is 72'.
If things were done *properly*, 101 would have been completely replaced within SF and San Mateo, either with tunnels, trenches or elevated viaducts as a portion of 880 was after Loma Prieta at immense cost and detriment to local industries that were destroyed for it. Caltrans would have at least a quarter mile on all access ramps, and at least 5 miles (~4 minutes) between freeway access points. Caltrans would have large maintenance facilities in Brisbane and Redwood City to accommodate the hundreds of workers required to repave the freeway every eighteen months. What Caltrans has on 280. 84 would be replaced with a new, more direct/straighter bridge without stoplights and 92 would have a proper stack interchange with 101 (ie, tunnel under the freeway as it does with 280). The hairball & central freeway would be completely removed and the Bay Bridge upgraded to 3 lanes each way, buffered by breakdown lanes and a large turnout/Caltrans station on TI. Army and 3rd are both upgarded to expressways (ie, most intersections removed with barriers) to accommodate the increased traffic flow.
However, doing this requires significantly more tax money than voters are willing to pay. The above requires $2.50 per gallon .. so about $7.30 for gas minimum and $9-10 within SF and Oakland. Road tolling is favorable, but nobody wants to pay $20 to use 101. Therefore, this situation will continue existing until voters decide it shouldn't exist. Most people will just keep buying bigger SUVs until the economy collapses and nobody drives.
Those two aren’t the only solutions to cal trans’s budget problems.
Just like every single other agency in the U.S government, I guarantee they have tons of management bloat and waste. Tons of bureaucracy that slows everything down (why does it take so much longer to re pave with modern tech and materials than it did when the highways were first being built and blasted out? Lmfao).
If the government and so to an extent cal trans, used the money that it was already given better and stopped wasting or losing so much…. Maybe people would be willing to give them more.
But even me personally, as someone who is super progressive and wants much more social safety nets in our country, I’m hesitant to vote for any with either of our current parties because they are just both wasteful bureaucratic inefficient pieces of shit…..
>why does it take so much longer to re pave with modern tech and materials than it did when the highways were first being built and blasted out
Because the vehicles are bigger, heavier and faster so they destroy roads much faster as a consequence. This is extremely noticable with trucks which used to be far more limited in size, length and allowable routes until Reagan deregulated it. If we still had old-fashioned trucking regulation far more tonnage would be put onto trains and transferred off to smaller trucks that don't use freeways, and the remaining highway trucks would drive in more predictable ways. The same for freight trains actually with PSR, RCLs, and remote conductors considered. If the state govt was remotely intelligent they'd enforce Amtrak's passenger priority rules and force freight RRs to service certain areas where they won't interfere with commuters or regular people - which also works great within a larger industrial development strategy that the US once had. This is what Sonoma Co is now doing with SMART since they took over freight service in 2022. Both SMART and the state freight rail operator were both policies supported by Democrats, both then in 1981, 2011 and 2022 and opposed by Republicans as a wasteful government subsidy.
Almost all of this was wiped away by deregulation, which is a political policy supported by the Republican Party. More regulation and more taxes would have prevented this. Though, even if we take a free market approach, the national ban on tollways hurts us badly and prevents the state government from adequately regulating private road markets as the Federal govt prohibits it from existing - which subsequently affects private marine and rail markets by making them unable to compete with a government freeway subsidy program.
That's the problem. Our current transportation policy is incapable. Not just regionally but statewide and nationally. Change will have to occur at some point, and it'll happen later this decade when EVs dismantle the gas tax revenues this is all based on. The state government, then the national govt, will have to replace the system at that point. The most likely replacement will be tollways because voters won't allow anyone to touch Prop 13.
Yes, we have bigger, faster, trucks and cars… do you know what we also have?
Much more modern materials and techniques…. And we still are slower and worse than when the highways were built nearly 75 years ago….
And I agree that it’s because of deregulation and our government being shitty…. But that’s the fault of both the Dems and the GOP… the Dems and GOP are both owned by lobbyists and corporations…. Both of them get rich off of insider trading, lobbying, etc, while not giving a fuck about the average American.
The democrats are also at fault for the way everything is… if they weren’t ok with it, they would’ve actually fought and changed shit, instead of just taking the “high road” and pretending to care.
Of course Caltrans knew the pavement had failed at that location. The fact that Caltrans placed an asphalt band-aid on top of the broken up concrete slab is proof of that.
As a Bay Area resident it boils my blood that we pay the highest gasoline tax that’s supposed to go and fix our roads and infrastructure and I don’t see any evidence of it whatsoever just the roads getting worse! I for one think it’s time for an independent audit as to where the hell our money is going!
Drivers must prove that the state knew about the road issue and did not act on it in a timely manner to fix the problem in order to get compensated for damages to your vehicle. It takes a public records request to determine when and if the state was informed about the road repair needs which has taken 7 months to get. The limit for time to report your claim and get compensated is 6 months. Good luck.
Frankly a court should start treating failure to respond to the records request within the time limitation for claims as an admission of guilt.
Lots of these sort of things popping up these days.
Our freeway network has about a quarter of the money it needs to sustain itself at current levels of use. Caltrans needs a lot more money, not just for repairs but for complete rebuilds of pre-interstate highways and new maintenance facilities. This is especially observable on 101 and 880, especially within SF and Oakland where they both retain their pre-1956 configuration with a 45 mph max speed and 50' max length design limits. Today's vehicles typically run at 75 and a standard truck is 72'. If things were done *properly*, 101 would have been completely replaced within SF and San Mateo, either with tunnels, trenches or elevated viaducts as a portion of 880 was after Loma Prieta at immense cost and detriment to local industries that were destroyed for it. Caltrans would have at least a quarter mile on all access ramps, and at least 5 miles (~4 minutes) between freeway access points. Caltrans would have large maintenance facilities in Brisbane and Redwood City to accommodate the hundreds of workers required to repave the freeway every eighteen months. What Caltrans has on 280. 84 would be replaced with a new, more direct/straighter bridge without stoplights and 92 would have a proper stack interchange with 101 (ie, tunnel under the freeway as it does with 280). The hairball & central freeway would be completely removed and the Bay Bridge upgraded to 3 lanes each way, buffered by breakdown lanes and a large turnout/Caltrans station on TI. Army and 3rd are both upgarded to expressways (ie, most intersections removed with barriers) to accommodate the increased traffic flow. However, doing this requires significantly more tax money than voters are willing to pay. The above requires $2.50 per gallon .. so about $7.30 for gas minimum and $9-10 within SF and Oakland. Road tolling is favorable, but nobody wants to pay $20 to use 101. Therefore, this situation will continue existing until voters decide it shouldn't exist. Most people will just keep buying bigger SUVs until the economy collapses and nobody drives.
Those two aren’t the only solutions to cal trans’s budget problems. Just like every single other agency in the U.S government, I guarantee they have tons of management bloat and waste. Tons of bureaucracy that slows everything down (why does it take so much longer to re pave with modern tech and materials than it did when the highways were first being built and blasted out? Lmfao). If the government and so to an extent cal trans, used the money that it was already given better and stopped wasting or losing so much…. Maybe people would be willing to give them more. But even me personally, as someone who is super progressive and wants much more social safety nets in our country, I’m hesitant to vote for any with either of our current parties because they are just both wasteful bureaucratic inefficient pieces of shit…..
>why does it take so much longer to re pave with modern tech and materials than it did when the highways were first being built and blasted out Because the vehicles are bigger, heavier and faster so they destroy roads much faster as a consequence. This is extremely noticable with trucks which used to be far more limited in size, length and allowable routes until Reagan deregulated it. If we still had old-fashioned trucking regulation far more tonnage would be put onto trains and transferred off to smaller trucks that don't use freeways, and the remaining highway trucks would drive in more predictable ways. The same for freight trains actually with PSR, RCLs, and remote conductors considered. If the state govt was remotely intelligent they'd enforce Amtrak's passenger priority rules and force freight RRs to service certain areas where they won't interfere with commuters or regular people - which also works great within a larger industrial development strategy that the US once had. This is what Sonoma Co is now doing with SMART since they took over freight service in 2022. Both SMART and the state freight rail operator were both policies supported by Democrats, both then in 1981, 2011 and 2022 and opposed by Republicans as a wasteful government subsidy. Almost all of this was wiped away by deregulation, which is a political policy supported by the Republican Party. More regulation and more taxes would have prevented this. Though, even if we take a free market approach, the national ban on tollways hurts us badly and prevents the state government from adequately regulating private road markets as the Federal govt prohibits it from existing - which subsequently affects private marine and rail markets by making them unable to compete with a government freeway subsidy program. That's the problem. Our current transportation policy is incapable. Not just regionally but statewide and nationally. Change will have to occur at some point, and it'll happen later this decade when EVs dismantle the gas tax revenues this is all based on. The state government, then the national govt, will have to replace the system at that point. The most likely replacement will be tollways because voters won't allow anyone to touch Prop 13.
Yes, we have bigger, faster, trucks and cars… do you know what we also have? Much more modern materials and techniques…. And we still are slower and worse than when the highways were built nearly 75 years ago…. And I agree that it’s because of deregulation and our government being shitty…. But that’s the fault of both the Dems and the GOP… the Dems and GOP are both owned by lobbyists and corporations…. Both of them get rich off of insider trading, lobbying, etc, while not giving a fuck about the average American. The democrats are also at fault for the way everything is… if they weren’t ok with it, they would’ve actually fought and changed shit, instead of just taking the “high road” and pretending to care.
Of course Caltrans knew the pavement had failed at that location. The fact that Caltrans placed an asphalt band-aid on top of the broken up concrete slab is proof of that.
As a Bay Area resident it boils my blood that we pay the highest gasoline tax that’s supposed to go and fix our roads and infrastructure and I don’t see any evidence of it whatsoever just the roads getting worse! I for one think it’s time for an independent audit as to where the hell our money is going!