Bumping Along Port Townsend’s Busted Up Streets
WHAM! GRIND! SCRAPE!!
Grrrrrr.
I had scooted across 19th Street, going north on Landes after leaving the Safeway. When I got to the other side my front tires dropped, the road came up, and I was scraping the bottom of my car across the blacktop.
Landes at 19th
Landes Street
Landes Street
I disembarked to inspect for damage. That plastic part below the bumper was cracked. I didn’t see oil leaking. But I did see a road that looked like it had been paved by Jackson Pollock–the artist who had a laugh at the world making millions by splashing paint onto big canvases. Somehow he must have gotten the contract for applying tar to Landes Street. It has so many chaotic patches it looks like a gigantic abstract composition.
Cinema verite, too. This could be a multi-media production. I can’t imagine how shaky a hand-held video would be driving along these blocks. Potholes, rivets, ridges, gullies, and just failed paving make for one bumpy, jolting ride. It goes on for blocks.
After that day I started paying attention and realized failing streets are everywhere!
How did the maintenance of our streets fall so far behind? I had always thought that providing transportation infrastructure, a fancy phrase for city streets, was a basic service of a municipal corporation. Prior generations of city leaders laid out our street plan and upgraded them from dirt horse tracks with all the things that go into constructing a modern means for automobiles on rubber tires to move about. All that critical work, surveying, grading, compaction, base course and chip seal (I Googled road building) was done years ago. The current state of our streets looks like we’re having trouble hanging onto a tattered inheritance.
I thought Landes was bad. Then I went to visit a friend who told me to take Center Street to get across the valley. I took a right off San Juan and stopped. Maybe I’m now obsessed. But the deterioration of this residential street made me get out with my camera and walk. It gets worse and worse as you start climbing to Redwood, block-long sections of pavement barely held together by ugly, misshapen and sloppy splotches of cracked tar. And more than a few legitimate potholes. 
That photo at the top of this story is Center Street, as is the one to the left and these, as well.
I got back in my car and rattled along until I got to Redwood. But this jolting journey isn’t over. I will be sharing more photos from around our town showing just how bad things really are.
I’m no highway engineer, but I’ve been told, and it’s common sense, that when roads are neglected like ours are they only get worse and worse. Prolific and poorly applied patching is less than a temporary band aid. It may actually contribute to accelerating the deterioration with the freeze-and-thaw cycle and rain getting into and under what was once a uniform asphalt surface.
You roll and rock along the same streets as I but maybe don’t get out and snap photos. What’s that lady doing stopping in front of the house again, taking more pictures of potholes? Don’t worry, that’s just sweet Z and her trusty Nikon.
I’m sending my work to Port Townsend Free Press in the hope it gets attention and encourages action. I observed that the editor teased my forthcoming stories on their Facebook page and used a couple photos I took of decaying, deteriorating, degenerating, dearly beloved Discovery Road. A couple weeks later the city announced it was seeking federal funding to do something about that grand boulevard. But first they will put in a bike lane on broken pavement. I guess that’s our PT Vibe applied to the art of road maintenance.
Until our next outing, happy trails, mon amis.