gc
16 September 2003, 12:48 AM
City's pothole repair system on a bumpy road, audit says
Dallas responds to calls, but process drains time, lacks proper resources
Monday, September 15, 2003
By TERRI LANGFORD / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/091603dnmetpotholes.4dc67.html
You see a pothole in Dallas.
You report it to the city.
A city worker notes the location of the pothole and then contacts someone else to go look at the pothole. That worker may or may not determine whether asphalt or concrete is needed. That worker may or may not call a crew supervisor, who takes another look at that's right the pothole.
Welcome to the Byzantine world of pothole repairs in Dallas, where a lot of assessment occurs before crews are dispatched. And that is only part of the problem in getting repairs efficiently done, according to a city performance audit.
Each year, Dallas officials budget more than $3 million for labor and materials for street repairs, which includes filling more than 18,200 potholes during the current fiscal year. There are 307 people assigned to repair the city's roads.
The review of pothole repairing found that as many as four trips can be made to the pothole; it also found an inadequate record-keeping system and ill-equipped workers who sometimes use their shoes instead of measuring tape to mark off the dimensions of the holes.
Overall, auditors found the Dallas Street Services Department to be "diligent and responsive in repairing potholes."
But the system used to identify the potholes, get workers to the site and verify the work once it was completed was found to be lacking and time-consuming. Street service officials said they are working on improvements.
Once a pothole is properly vetted by one and sometimes two other workers, a repair crew is called. But first crews have to pick up asphalt, up to a 20-mile trip that takes away from filling holes, auditors said.
"The daily loading of pothole patch trucks takes crews away from their primary responsibility, which is filling potholes," auditors reported. "If trips to the asphalt plant were limited to two per week, crews could repair streets for an additional three hours per week."
Inadequate tools
Then there's the problem of finding a patch truck that's not sidelined for repairs. Auditors found that the city street crews relied too often on dump trucks because the city's aging fleet of 15 patch trucks was either out of commission or in for repairs.
"In one district," auditors wrote, "two pothole patch trucks were not in service due to breakdowns and/or other maintenance needs."
Dump trucks do not come with the tools necessary to effectively repair a pothole, such as jackhammers and a heating element that keeps patching mix hot.
In one instance, auditors observed that a street repaired with tools found on a dump truck merely covered up a problem.
"As a result, within minutes after completing this job we noted that depressions could be made in the newly repaired area," the audit team noted.
Data inconsistencies
Auditors also noted that inconsistent data collection by work crews contributed to record-keeping problems.
"Crewmembers' shoes were the most consistently used instruments for computing work effort within all four maintenance districts," the audit team reported. "Measurements taken in this manner are probably inaccurate."
The city appeared to be its own worst enemy when it came to alley potholes.
"The city's sanitation trucks cause the majority of alley problems," auditors wrote.
Most Dallas alleys are 8 feet wide the same width as a sanitation truck. Because alleys and trucks are about the same size, the vehicles' weight cannot be equally distributed on the alley pavement, causing cracks and dents.
Mayor Laura Miller, known for her dedication to improving basic city services, could not be reached for comment on the audit.
Jim Wood, director of the Dallas Street Services Department, conceded that the procedures may not be as streamlined as the city wants, but the way repairs street or otherwise are called in and assessed has been part of a complicated service-request management system that is being overhauled.
"It was not designed to be a work order system," Mr. Wood said. "Our management information system has not been sufficient to give reports. We've taken some steps to improve the old system. We moved the data to a server so we can have better access to it."
He said that should help with quicker responses to pothole repairs.
"It's always good to have someone from the outside to take a look," Mr. Wood said of the audit.
E-mail tlangford@dallasnews.com
Here is what the audit found:
A Dallas city audit of street pothole repairs found these problems:
Too much time spent by repair crews on trips to get asphalt and not enough time repairing potholes.
No consistent standard to determine a pothole's size or threat to the street and motorists.
Pothole repairers often use their shoes not measuring tape to determine the size of holes, resulting in inconsistent statistics about the size of potholes repaired.
Mazelike bureaucracy that can requires two different people to see a pothole before it is repaired.
Most alley potholes are created by city sanitation trucks, not motorists.
Aging pothole patch truck inventory. Half of the 15 trucks used to repair potholes are more than 6 years old, and several are beyond repair.
Dallas responds to calls, but process drains time, lacks proper resources
Monday, September 15, 2003
By TERRI LANGFORD / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/091603dnmetpotholes.4dc67.html
You see a pothole in Dallas.
You report it to the city.
A city worker notes the location of the pothole and then contacts someone else to go look at the pothole. That worker may or may not determine whether asphalt or concrete is needed. That worker may or may not call a crew supervisor, who takes another look at that's right the pothole.
Welcome to the Byzantine world of pothole repairs in Dallas, where a lot of assessment occurs before crews are dispatched. And that is only part of the problem in getting repairs efficiently done, according to a city performance audit.
Each year, Dallas officials budget more than $3 million for labor and materials for street repairs, which includes filling more than 18,200 potholes during the current fiscal year. There are 307 people assigned to repair the city's roads.
The review of pothole repairing found that as many as four trips can be made to the pothole; it also found an inadequate record-keeping system and ill-equipped workers who sometimes use their shoes instead of measuring tape to mark off the dimensions of the holes.
Overall, auditors found the Dallas Street Services Department to be "diligent and responsive in repairing potholes."
But the system used to identify the potholes, get workers to the site and verify the work once it was completed was found to be lacking and time-consuming. Street service officials said they are working on improvements.
Once a pothole is properly vetted by one and sometimes two other workers, a repair crew is called. But first crews have to pick up asphalt, up to a 20-mile trip that takes away from filling holes, auditors said.
"The daily loading of pothole patch trucks takes crews away from their primary responsibility, which is filling potholes," auditors reported. "If trips to the asphalt plant were limited to two per week, crews could repair streets for an additional three hours per week."
Inadequate tools
Then there's the problem of finding a patch truck that's not sidelined for repairs. Auditors found that the city street crews relied too often on dump trucks because the city's aging fleet of 15 patch trucks was either out of commission or in for repairs.
"In one district," auditors wrote, "two pothole patch trucks were not in service due to breakdowns and/or other maintenance needs."
Dump trucks do not come with the tools necessary to effectively repair a pothole, such as jackhammers and a heating element that keeps patching mix hot.
In one instance, auditors observed that a street repaired with tools found on a dump truck merely covered up a problem.
"As a result, within minutes after completing this job we noted that depressions could be made in the newly repaired area," the audit team noted.
Data inconsistencies
Auditors also noted that inconsistent data collection by work crews contributed to record-keeping problems.
"Crewmembers' shoes were the most consistently used instruments for computing work effort within all four maintenance districts," the audit team reported. "Measurements taken in this manner are probably inaccurate."
The city appeared to be its own worst enemy when it came to alley potholes.
"The city's sanitation trucks cause the majority of alley problems," auditors wrote.
Most Dallas alleys are 8 feet wide the same width as a sanitation truck. Because alleys and trucks are about the same size, the vehicles' weight cannot be equally distributed on the alley pavement, causing cracks and dents.
Mayor Laura Miller, known for her dedication to improving basic city services, could not be reached for comment on the audit.
Jim Wood, director of the Dallas Street Services Department, conceded that the procedures may not be as streamlined as the city wants, but the way repairs street or otherwise are called in and assessed has been part of a complicated service-request management system that is being overhauled.
"It was not designed to be a work order system," Mr. Wood said. "Our management information system has not been sufficient to give reports. We've taken some steps to improve the old system. We moved the data to a server so we can have better access to it."
He said that should help with quicker responses to pothole repairs.
"It's always good to have someone from the outside to take a look," Mr. Wood said of the audit.
E-mail tlangford@dallasnews.com
Here is what the audit found:
A Dallas city audit of street pothole repairs found these problems:
Too much time spent by repair crews on trips to get asphalt and not enough time repairing potholes.
No consistent standard to determine a pothole's size or threat to the street and motorists.
Pothole repairers often use their shoes not measuring tape to determine the size of holes, resulting in inconsistent statistics about the size of potholes repaired.
Mazelike bureaucracy that can requires two different people to see a pothole before it is repaired.
Most alley potholes are created by city sanitation trucks, not motorists.
Aging pothole patch truck inventory. Half of the 15 trucks used to repair potholes are more than 6 years old, and several are beyond repair.