Several weeks ago the sidewalk project on Goni Road was completed. One could argue the value of the project, but the finished product begs some answers.
When you drive north on Goni from Arrowhead the newly completed road seems as you would expect new pavement married to old to look and feel. As you drive south it is definitely another story. As you approach the finished construction area at Sutro there is a temporary warning sign stating "Rough road." There is an extreme dip or depression in the southbound lane that is married to the new pavement that was laid less than a month ago.
My question is: How did this happen? How could the project miss this depression by only a few feet and be an acceptable finished product?
Another question arises at Fairview Drive a few hundred yards north of the Fifth Street roundabout. In the last two weeks Fairview was sealed with an oil slurry mix. The finished product seemed acceptable until the very next day, when the contractor laying the new water pipe cut the road, laid the pipe and resurfaced the cut. Can anyone give me a good reason why the sealing of Fairview couldn't wait a day or two until the pipe was laid and the road repaired?
This is one of my biggest pet peeves with Carson City; when they rebuild a road or seal one I will bet anyone that the road will be cut within six months. The question that begs an answer is: Does the right hand know what the left is doing?
Back to Goni Road. I will argue that the sidewalks could have waited and the pavement in the southbound lane should have been the focus of the construction work. The truck traffic has destroyed the southbound lane north of Sutro. I will give the pavement about two more years before it is primarily a gravel road southbound.
I suggest that the city develop one employee (not a new position) as the clearing point for road projects. Give them the responsibility and authority to insure that all projects that may have an impact on road surfaces be coordinated to insure at least two years go by before the surface can be altered or cut. It also would be nice to see contracts include language holding contractors responsible for their patchwork for at least a year.
It seems counterproductive for the right hand to accomplish a task and the left to immediately undo it.
• Jim Bagwell of Carson City is a Vietnam veteran and graduate of the FBI National Academy who worked 31 years in law enforcement. He and his wife Lori own Charley's Grilled Subs.