PennDOT formerly had a motto that stated “Temporary Inconvenience, Permanent Improvement.” That motto was dropped, apparently for good reason.

When it takes more than a month to finish off a short stretch of roadway, the inconvenience can hardly be labeled as “temporary.” Actually, the better term would be “inexcusable”.

As everyone who traverses Shenango Valley highways knows, repair projects this summer in our area have been ridiculously long. That’s because subcontractors for the state decided to do the roads piecemeal, rather than complete one road at a time.

In the past, the inconvenience on each road usually lasted only a few days at a time. But this year, the road work has everyone fuming. Throw in the hazardous driving conditions at some intersections where handicap ramps were applied to sidewalks and there is even more frustration.

Many of the driving problems resulted because the PennDOT work was performed on several roads at one time, instead of individually. First each road that needed it was milled down, leaving rough rides and dangerous conditions as drivers swerved to avoid the high manholes for many days.

Then several days later, the crews laid down the first layer of blacktop, still leaving the high manholes to avoid as well as big drops from people’s driveways to the highway. There were even reports of people tearing off parts of the underside of vehicles as they dropped to the roadway from their driveways.

Then finally, as much as a month or more later, the final layer of road surface was applied. In some areas, work is still going on.

While performing the projects in this manner may save money, it creates real problems for drivers and home-owners in the areas of the road repairs.

Another complaint is that the work is performed without any input from local communities. For example, Indiana Avenue was milled in Farrell two days before the Memorial Day parade was supposed to assemble there. A little bit of courtesy and better timing would be nice.

If PennDOT plans to continue this method of repairs, we would recommend that these plans be reviewed and changed. There is no reason that citizens have to endure lengthy road work near their homes when the it should be only a “temporary inconvenience” if one road is completed at a time.

While we all appreciate having nice new highway surfaces to drive on, we appreciate it even more when that surface is finished in only a few days.

Let’s hope that there’s a better job done with the with the upcoming bridge replacements and repairs throughout the county. With the price of gas today, extended detours could be very costly.