My home area in KY had two bridges in the early 00s that I read at the time were rated some of the lowest in the US (like a score of 2 out of 100 or something).
One fell just outside Pittsburgh about 6 months ago. Inspectors say they can not find anything structurally wrong and will look again next year to see how much worse its gotten and if the concrete chunks got bigger. The over-under with Penndot is three deaths before it may get fixed.
That's not actually the case. What happens is they fix it. Then they leave all their stuff there. Because in two or 4 weeks it will collapse again. The state will then rehire them to fix it. Their stuff is already there. That's why it seems like it's always under construction.
So, what’s UP with that??? I drive across PA to visit my parents in CT frequently and it kind of seems like the highway is permanently under construction but frequently there’s no actual construction going on. I’m looking at you, highways around Scranton!
Seriously. Been to every state on both coasts. Philly can't even be bothered to paint fucking lane makings. It's like driving in India all of a sudden.
I commented on the roads to a local after I moved to PA a few years back. Her response was something about all the winter salting. I wanted to ask her about all of the other snowy states that seem to evade these supposed salt-related effects but I just left it alone chalking it up to having not visited other states.
PA is one of the few states I've been to and saw a "PAVEMENT ENDS" sign. The 55mph two-lane highway abruptly goes from asphalt to gravel for twenty miles.
I just moved to Pennsylvania from New Jersey a couple of years ago so I travel back and forth at least once a week. It's almost as if the second you cross into Pennsylvania you are in a constant pothole, I never realized how much better the roads are in New Jersey than Pennsylvania until I moved here. Just for the record I absolutely hate it here and I miss my weekend morning bagels
Call your representatives and complain about Penndot not being funded. Dot can't repair state roads without proper funding (they don't maintain city or county roads btw). While you're at it, also tell them to stop diverting Penndot's funding to law enforcement.
Was going to a wedding in Cleveland and drove through PA on I-79. Through some roadwork, they ground down the road before a bridge and didn't put anything to "ramp" back up to road height. *Cue us hitting the bridge at 75 and bubbling all 4 tires, because it was basically us hitting a curb. No bump sign, no cones, no flashing lights. Just a sheer 4" surface height difference and no warning.
You want “cue” not “queue” there. But yep that sounds like standard Penndot work. Every state rags on their DOT but PA residents have a special scorn for our crew of utter chuckleheads.
Not a good one. There's a bridge here in NE PA that has a literal pothole. And under that pothole is very weak bridge with rust. It's going to give any time now. But it's the only bridge without going really far out of the way. They don't care about these things. They don't fix them. They just drop stuff on top and think it's all better. This is Pennsylvania. You really would be terrified to see underneath.
This road will be driven on in this condition and worse for as long as possible. Then they will set up a construction zone to “resurface” it and that will take anywhere from 1-2 decades to complete.
That's just PA roads in general. Where I live I feel like I need an alignment every month.... And the kicker is there's a penndot office a half mile from my house.
Looks like the Amish were sick of the potholes and filled it themselves, then again I’m definitely wrong considering their craftsmanship is above and beyond anything penndot could handle
I'll be honest.. the way our state runs it's department of transportation reminds me of how the Soviet union ran it's government. Penndot is riddled with "employees" that absolutely abuse government funds. It's a joke around where I live. A local bridge was replaced for $2 million dollars.. 4 years later, the same crew was hired again to replace the same bridge by mistake.. they knew this.. and did it anyways and they all laughed and said "job security".. I overheard this story while out to eat at lunch at a hot dog shop where there were 4 of em talking. It doesn't surprise me at all.
2 trillion would be great but not all or even a small portion of that two trillion went to physical infrastructure like roads and bridges. politics aside I think large spending packages stuffed with spending should be split apart so people can 1 easily see where their tax money goes and 2 give more power to democracy to vote on how money would be better spent rather than the all or nothing approach
Have lived in both. Ran over a rabbit and almost hit a deer in PA, but was virtually traumatized trying to drive a moving vehicle a mile and a half in Uptown. In general there's no comparison, New Orleans is way worse, although you'll find plenty of examples of egregious roads in PA as well (as in the OP)
I was visiting family in NJ and PA last week. All of the roads I was on around LBI were great. Drove over the Walt Whitman onto 95 in PA and thought I was in Kiev, that’s how bombed out it was.
Pittsburgh, yup. That bridge was just inspected if I remember. They just inspected my local bridge the one with a pothole that goes to the river below. It passed inspection in case you were wondering.
It really hits home hardest if you cross into jersey from PA. It's such a stark, immediate contrast as you drive from something a bit better than the picture above (but not much) into nice, new, fresh highway. The road noise ceases. Vibration stops. A sense of calm seeps in that lasts until you encounter a jersey driver. It's an experience, to be sure.
Oh no no no, Pennsylvania's roads have always been like this. I wish we had started at first world roads, but we have been the pothole state since good ol' 76.
As someone that occasionally works on roads - I'm not even quite sure how they made it that bad. Looks like there has been a lot going on in that picture?
What a lot of people don’t understand is the sheer amount of bridges there are in PA. That mere are so many you don’t even realize that you’re actually on one unless it’s a major bridge. Fixing/maintaining them is expensive and with the many million + square foot warehouses they are slapping up these bridges see tons of truck traffic way more then most roads considering PA is the gateway to the North East.
We have these rumble strips around the mountain that when you do the actual speed limit it makes the jaws theme. I don't think they intended that, but I giggle every time.
Sure, I'll grant you she may not be fancy and clean like so many of your high-toned, big city freeways, what with their uniform road surfaces and understandable lane markings, but this one here is a fine road, honest and true, and I reckon she has something they ain't, which is real character. She don't put on no airs, nor do she promise to do more'n that for which she were built. She has a hard, flat surface, wide enough for two stagecoaches to pass by one another without becoming all a-tangled, which makes her beyond adequate for your purposes, I'd hasten to wager!
I honestly cannot recall as to where I read it, but living in PA there was an interesting article as to WHY our roads break down so rapidly. And it made the point of how just extreme Pennsylvania's weather is in the sense it really has all 4 seasons and then some.
We literally just voted against an infrastructure bill in Pa. Dude, we don’t need roads. We never leave our hometown. Philly is all like “oh, dead 8 year olds, oh, we should help 8 year olds not get butchered”, like a bunch of socialists. The rest of us in PennsylTucky? We know that Obummers a traitor, wake up sheeple
This is why we need that infrastructure bill further highways and interstate across the country it'll create jobs and and at the very least keep people from driving over bridges that will collapse at some point
If you think the surface pavement is holding up the bridge, you probably should not be allowed to drive a car. You probably shouldn’t be allowed to do anything important to anyone anywhere. Because you are stupid.
There's used to be bridge that goes over train tracks at the Chrysler plant in Detroit that had a literal hole the size of a sewer lid all the way through it. It would get covered up by snow and destroy unbelieving unsuspecting vehicles that dared to cross.
Ah yes, a pristine example of a Pennsylvania DOT Quilt
Isn't making asphalt quilts how the Pennsylvania Dutch supplement their income?
My home area in KY had two bridges in the early 00s that I read at the time were rated some of the lowest in the US (like a score of 2 out of 100 or something).
PENNDOT at its finest. Don't look under the bridge...
Seriously, don’t- the falling chunks are deadly…
The Gang Looks Under The Bridge
There probably another bridge for catching debris of the first bridge!
[удалено]
Did you hear the one about the PENNDOT employees who forgot their shovels?
Christ 422 has been under repair since it was built.
One fell just outside Pittsburgh about 6 months ago. Inspectors say they can not find anything structurally wrong and will look again next year to see how much worse its gotten and if the concrete chunks got bigger. The over-under with Penndot is three deaths before it may get fixed.
No joke:
AUDIT ALL OF PA
How is this possible? Most of Pennsylvania’s roads have been under construction since the 80s
That's not actually the case. What happens is they fix it. Then they leave all their stuff there. Because in two or 4 weeks it will collapse again. The state will then rehire them to fix it. Their stuff is already there. That's why it seems like it's always under construction.
So, what’s UP with that??? I drive across PA to visit my parents in CT frequently and it kind of seems like the highway is permanently under construction but frequently there’s no actual construction going on. I’m looking at you, highways around Scranton!
Bridge of Theseus
Rainbow road
Theseus the best comment I've read today
Is it just me or has reddit been obsessed with the Ship of Theseus lately?
Looks like they cut funding to schools and roads in this area probably to fund more coward cops!
PA has the worst roads I’ve ever seen and I live in NJ
You can immediately tell when you cross over from NY to PA on 81.
Seriously. Been to every state on both coasts. Philly can't even be bothered to paint fucking lane makings. It's like driving in India all of a sudden.
Michigan enters the chat
I commented on the roads to a local after I moved to PA a few years back. Her response was something about all the winter salting. I wanted to ask her about all of the other snowy states that seem to evade these supposed salt-related effects but I just left it alone chalking it up to having not visited other states.
Come to Michigan. Lol
NJ roads are great, what?
Driving from PA to NJ is just switching from dodging potholes to dodging other drivers
Hard to keep the roads paved when that money gets “repurposed”
I’m picturing an underground mechanic conspiracy to keep the roads bad for endless repair$.
Have you been to Michigan?
Have you ever driven in Michigan?
I remember driving out of Texas into Lousiana and thought I suddenly got a flat, the roads were noticeably worse.
Michigan just entered the room...
Come to Michigan
I've always grown up thinking we had the worst in Michigan but I've not seen anything like this on a bridge!
Then you haven't been to northern Maine.
PA is one of the few states I've been to and saw a "PAVEMENT ENDS" sign. The 55mph two-lane highway abruptly goes from asphalt to gravel for twenty miles.
PA also has the most expensive tolls in the country.
Same here and I live in Arkansas. Even Little Rock municipal roads look good compared to this shit.
I just moved to Pennsylvania from New Jersey a couple of years ago so I travel back and forth at least once a week. It's almost as if the second you cross into Pennsylvania you are in a constant pothole, I never realized how much better the roads are in New Jersey than Pennsylvania until I moved here. Just for the record I absolutely hate it here and I miss my weekend morning bagels
laughs in Mainer
I grew up in south jersey, going into Philly gave me the worst anxiety. But getting lost in Camden was 100x scarier
As a Pennsylvanian I can confirm our roads are dog shit. Fuck you Penndot! This should be crossposted to
I’m happy to see this is blowing up, maybe something can actually happen for once. You can actually see how bad it is from the map:
Jeez. I thought this was the PA sub... I was like, "of course where else would this be? Why post this, we know what the roads look like here?"
We all know and we all know the state police took the fucking highway fund for ??? and nobody did anything
Call your representatives and complain about Penndot not being funded. Dot can't repair state roads without proper funding (they don't maintain city or county roads btw). While you're at it, also tell them to stop diverting Penndot's funding to law enforcement.
Not as bad as Ohio.
Nothing like driving on a highway that screams the whole time. Only experienced that when driving through Pennsylvania.
No dead deer on the road. This can’t be Pennsylvania
They’ve all fallen through the cracks.
Someone swooped by and picked it up probably.
This made me chuckle. Thank you
Was going to a wedding in Cleveland and drove through PA on I-79. Through some roadwork, they ground down the road before a bridge and didn't put anything to "ramp" back up to road height. *Cue us hitting the bridge at 75 and bubbling all 4 tires, because it was basically us hitting a curb. No bump sign, no cones, no flashing lights. Just a sheer 4" surface height difference and no warning.
You want “cue” not “queue” there. But yep that sounds like standard Penndot work. Every state rags on their DOT but PA residents have a special scorn for our crew of utter chuckleheads.
Deep dive this rabbit hole in the current economic system and you'll realize that this type of stuff actually increases GDP.
Yup. I was surprised to find that they had actually put up a sign to warn motorcyclists that they had graded the roads down.
“Let’s play a game of: where are the lanes?”
But what condition is the structure underneath like if that is how they repair the surface.
Not a good one. There's a bridge here in NE PA that has a literal pothole. And under that pothole is very weak bridge with rust. It's going to give any time now. But it's the only bridge without going really far out of the way. They don't care about these things. They don't fix them. They just drop stuff on top and think it's all better. This is Pennsylvania. You really would be terrified to see underneath.
Just finding out about our roads and PennDOT? We pay an extra 50 cents per gallon of gas for our roads to look like this.
As a Brit (living in the US), comments like this always crack me up.
The tax wasn't that long ago.
60% goes to the roads.
Well, reading through this thread I have rapid-fire learned about a whole grab bag of other unique to PA issues, but this one at least is nation-wide.
A fresh coat of paint will have that look n like new in no time….
Where are PA tax money going?
Law enforcement
That is the question they keep making up answers to.
Well they have the largest state legislature and they pay the third highest per position.
In Germany that road would be closed immediately
Germany has the Autobahn, we have the Autobondo.
This road will be driven on in this condition and worse for as long as possible. Then they will set up a construction zone to “resurface” it and that will take anywhere from 1-2 decades to complete.
It looks like an average Belgian road tbh
I’m from Massachusetts and drove in Germany for the first time about a month ago. I was absolutely amazed how pristine all the roads were
In Britain that road would be single lane and getting resurfaced every month for 20years
Looks like it’s got another couple good years
If you mean the tires, I agree.
Hurry, funnel more tax payers money to politicians and billionaires!!!
That's just PA roads in general. Where I live I feel like I need an alignment every month.... And the kicker is there's a penndot office a half mile from my house.
Looks like the Amish were sick of the potholes and filled it themselves, then again I’m definitely wrong considering their craftsmanship is above and beyond anything penndot could handle
Looks like my grandma took part in the adopt a highway campaign
It's one a them Pennsylvania Dutch quilts!
I'll be honest.. the way our state runs it's department of transportation reminds me of how the Soviet union ran it's government. Penndot is riddled with "employees" that absolutely abuse government funds. It's a joke around where I live. A local bridge was replaced for $2 million dollars.. 4 years later, the same crew was hired again to replace the same bridge by mistake.. they knew this.. and did it anyways and they all laughed and said "job security".. I overheard this story while out to eat at lunch at a hot dog shop where there were 4 of em talking. It doesn't surprise me at all.
$2 trillion is too much!!" LoL
2 trillion would be great but not all or even a small portion of that two trillion went to physical infrastructure like roads and bridges. politics aside I think large spending packages stuffed with spending should be split apart so people can 1 easily see where their tax money goes and 2 give more power to democracy to vote on how money would be better spent rather than the all or nothing approach
They sent almost 100 billion to Ukraine. Way more than we spend on highways.
Probably has a $40 toll.
Still probably a soother ride than the streets in New Orleans…
I've never seen roads as bad as in the French Quarter. Have they done any road repairs there in the past 50 years?
Have lived in both. Ran over a rabbit and almost hit a deer in PA, but was virtually traumatized trying to drive a moving vehicle a mile and a half in Uptown. In general there's no comparison, New Orleans is way worse, although you'll find plenty of examples of egregious roads in PA as well (as in the OP)
You haven't seen Luzerne County pa
New Orleans gas to deal with nature's fury. Pennsylvania has no excuse.
I was visiting family in NJ and PA last week. All of the roads I was on around LBI were great. Drove over the Walt Whitman onto 95 in PA and thought I was in Kiev, that’s how bombed out it was.
Yeah the roads in NJ are mostly fine, at least here in the southern part, im not too sure about the other areas. PA on the other hand… yikes.
Wasn't there already 1 bridge collapse in PA this year?
Pittsburgh, yup. That bridge was just inspected if I remember. They just inspected my local bridge the one with a pothole that goes to the river below. It passed inspection in case you were wondering.
Don't have any pics on hand, but a few years back
So I think what you're saying is, just plug the holes with children's legs.
Yup. Luzerne County too
To add for the uninformed, Panther Hollow Bridge is probably less than a mile from the Fern Hollow Bridge that collapsed earlier this year
I thought you were talking about the bridge that collapsed this year.
Looks like one of our better ones.
Come on, this bridge is still standing and not on fire. Easily one of the better bridges in the state.
Best road in Pennsylvania honestly
You guys have a guard rail and a median!? So jealous.
Most don't
It really hits home hardest if you cross into jersey from PA. It's such a stark, immediate contrast as you drive from something a bit better than the picture above (but not much) into nice, new, fresh highway. The road noise ceases. Vibration stops. A sense of calm seeps in that lasts until you encounter a jersey driver. It's an experience, to be sure.
[удалено]
Oh no no no, Pennsylvania's roads have always been like this. I wish we had started at first world roads, but we have been the pothole state since good ol' 76.
It's a state road. NC roads by comparison ime have been glass smooth.
It’s not even low key
These are state roads. In my state, they’re not this bad, but they’re very bad. As soon as you get on a federal highway, buttery smooth.
Don’t let one photo ruin your entire perception of the American highway system.
Well a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill was just recently passed. So…
You have no idea what it’s like to be in a 3rd world country
The shit in your toilet drinks potable water.
As someone who used to live in a third world country, lol no.
You got to he joking right lol not even American and that sounds stupid
We literally just passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan
This opinion is laughably incorrect. 3rd world countries wish they could be as good as the worst part of Chicago or Detroit.
Not sure how we are becoming a country that is neither aligned with the West (NATO) nor with the East, the Communist bloc.
Cringe
To make matters worse, it spread out too much, so the the budget to maintain infrastructure is spread out too thin. It has to re-urbanize, a lot
Colorado has been redoing a majority of their main roads/bridges/highways. I think it’s cuz of the weed tax money
And the American's say their a melting pot, but this is clearly a mosaic.
As someone that occasionally works on roads - I'm not even quite sure how they made it that bad. Looks like there has been a lot going on in that picture?
Welcome to PA
What a lot of people don’t understand is the sheer amount of bridges there are in PA. That mere are so many you don’t even realize that you’re actually on one unless it’s a major bridge. Fixing/maintaining them is expensive and with the many million + square foot warehouses they are slapping up these bridges see tons of truck traffic way more then most roads considering PA is the gateway to the North East.
My gas tax paid for that!
My grandma could sew a finer bridge.
Almost looks like a material test area for all the colors
the actual roadway is the cheap part of the bridge. makes this more scary.
Patronage and Nepotism at it's best. A tradition in PA for a century (or more).
That’s actually 20 bridges all pieced together.
It's the bridge of many colors that PENNDOT made for me.
It looks like any road in the UK😂😂
It's so you don't fall asleep while crossing, like the rumble strips we have on the shoulder here in California
We have these rumble strips around the mountain that when you do the actual speed limit it makes the jaws theme. I don't think they intended that, but I giggle every time.
Wtf we have those here?
PENNDOT: under construction from Philly to Pittsburgh
If it aint broken don't fix ... or ... yeah you get the idea
Whatcha gonna do? Pay gas taxes?
This is what twenty years of dumping money into foreign wars will do to a country.
Every time I want to complain about the highways in some parts of California... I shut my mouth because of pictures like these. We do ok.
This is what happens when the state police raid your highway improvement funds.
Draw dicks everywhere.
If you replace enough of the road, is it still the same road or a completely new road?
Don’t you ever wonder where our taxes actually go?
Meh. Looks like Quebec road
PA native... definitely checks out
But the United States got money for Ukraine 🤣😂🤣😂 what a fucking joke
Sometimes I want to get a motorcycle then I see shit like this
Pa local here... Most pa bridges look like this. That's why we are sending pallets of cash to Ukraine
Sure, I'll grant you she may not be fancy and clean like so many of your high-toned, big city freeways, what with their uniform road surfaces and understandable lane markings, but this one here is a fine road, honest and true, and I reckon she has something they ain't, which is real character. She don't put on no airs, nor do she promise to do more'n that for which she were built. She has a hard, flat surface, wide enough for two stagecoaches to pass by one another without becoming all a-tangled, which makes her beyond adequate for your purposes, I'd hasten to wager!
Build back better
Needs more guns
Where's all your taxes going to?
Wow and I thought Michigan roads were bad!
I honestly cannot recall as to where I read it, but living in PA there was an interesting article as to WHY our roads break down so rapidly. And it made the point of how just extreme Pennsylvania's weather is in the sense it really has all 4 seasons and then some.
6.4 Trillion on Mideast wars since 2001. But hey they had it coming right? :
Huh, are your sure America is a 1st world country...?
Real-life Lego.
America Fuck Yeah!!!
We literally just voted against an infrastructure bill in Pa. Dude, we don’t need roads. We never leave our hometown. Philly is all like “oh, dead 8 year olds, oh, we should help 8 year olds not get butchered”, like a bunch of socialists. The rest of us in PennsylTucky? We know that Obummers a traitor, wake up sheeple
Just drive between the holes.
I always hear how people hate the roads in Pennsylvania.
It was likely built in 6th century BC. Built to last.
If it floats it's a duck
Looks like when you mix all the different colors of playdough together into one giant gob
Define “deferred maintenance.”
Yep, that’s penndot
Return to cobblestone
This is why we need that infrastructure bill further highways and interstate across the country it'll create jobs and and at the very least keep people from driving over bridges that will collapse at some point
Don't touch it! Those are load-bearing cracks!
Never in my life have I seen a better visual representation of a codebase after a few years.
This really just doesn't even make logistical sense, they are spending more no doubt patching rather than just closing a lane.
God America is such a shit hole lol
Pennsylvania, Somalia?
And PENNDOT is like "you have to report it on the app or we'll never know about it."
PennDOT fucking blows
Oh I’ve been on this bridge it was the absolute worst
If you think the surface pavement is holding up the bridge, you probably should not be allowed to drive a car. You probably shouldn’t be allowed to do anything important to anyone anywhere. Because you are stupid.
I live in Gettysburg.
California and Illinois moment
Yeah? And?
There's used to be bridge that goes over train tracks at the Chrysler plant in Detroit that had a literal hole the size of a sewer lid all the way through it. It would get covered up by snow and destroy unbelieving unsuspecting vehicles that dared to cross.
Me filling up creeper holes with random blocks from my inventory
If you complain enough they'll replace it .
"The Gang Solves the Infrastructure Problem"
More like PENNDONT.
Don't you worry. Penndot will block off one of those lanes for years. Then you can complain about the the state of the road and the traffic.
That looks fine. Maybe we should increase the military budget again. /S
3rd world infrastructure
That there isn’t Pennsylvania. That’s Pennsyltucky.
Greatest country on Earth, and don't you forget it