We the People
George Epstein tell his story
It began when I attended a meeting several months ago of the LA City Council Budget & Finance Committee on behalf of our senior center (the Claude Pepper Sr. Citizen Center). Several of us were asked by the Center Director to address the Committee about repairs needed at the Center.
At the Committee meeting, chaired by Councilmember Bernard Parks, before we were invited to speak, the City Councilmembers spoke about the drastically increasing expenses and decreasing revenues the City is experiencing, resulting in a budget deficit in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The City might have to lay off employees, cut back on services to the citizens, and raise additional funds by increasing taxes and fees, and/or issue bonds (borrowings).
When I was invited to speak, I decided to make a suggestion. The following is the substance of my statement.
“We understand the City’s problems and recognize the need to increase revenues. While there is bound to be opportunity to reduce waste in the operations of the City departments and agencies (some of which I have personally observed while serving as a volunteer in the LA public schools), there can be better ways to raise revenues for the City other than taxes, fees and bond issues – namely the “old fashioned way”: EARN IT!
The pothole situation is one example of an opportunity to do just that, while making our roads more car-friendly for our citizens. (One reason many seniors, including myself, avoid buses is that, as riders, we frequently must stand up on the bus, and the ride is so bumpy as to be considered dangerous to the elderly.)
“It should be noted that our city is blessed with outstanding technical expertise – a great resource that can be utilized to solve tough materials-related (and other) technology problems.
“We could organize a team of experts drawn from government, industry and universities to work together with the City to apply our experiences in solving aerospace and other problems involving materials technologies, to solving the City’s pothole problems.
“This could lead to a win-win situation: Better pothole repairs resulting in more durable, pothole-free roads, PLUS concomitantly, new revenues to the City (perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars per year) from licensing the advanced technology to other cities.”
Councilmembers Greuel and Rosendahl found my suggestion of interest and had their deputies contact me after my presentation.
Rosendahl’s Field Deputy, Jim Kennedy, later arranged a meeting held at Rosendahl’s offices in Westchester on July 9.
Our industry-Government-university team consisted of the Director of Space Materials from The Aerospace Corp.; a key staff member of the JPL/NASA Materials & Device Technologies Group; a professor from the UCLA Civil & Environmental Engineering Dept., conducting research in related materials technologies; the president of a local company that recently received an international civil engineering award for its innovative solution to an infrastructure problem; and I (many years of experience in resolving/preventing materials-related problems in space systems plus teaching at UCLA).
The City was represented by seven individuals with various responsibilities from the Dept. of Street Works, Bureau of Street Services; Dept. of General Services, Standards Division; and a special assistant to Councilmember Bill Rosendahl.
I explained how this meeting had come about and our objective; i.e., to determine the viability of establishing a project to significantly improve current pothole repair technology for the City of Los Angeles; and also provide a source for City revenue.
Nazario Sauceda, Assistant Director of the Dept. of Public Works, opened the discussion with a description of the scope of the problem in maintaining and repairing the City’s streets.
Because of the size of the City, with 6500 miles of streets (as well as alleys), it is a daunting task to maintain and repair these. While it is desirable to resurface roads every ten years, available equipment permits each road to be treated only once every 30 years.
In residential areas, the City is very responsive to citizen phone calls for pothole repairs. To save in costs and control quality, the City operates its own asphalt production facilities, producing 600,000 tons of asphalt per year.
Because of limited maintenance, potholes occur quite frequently. The introduction of new buses on major thoroughfares such as Wilshire Blvd. has exacerbated to pothole problem because of higher concentrated loads applied to the roads, resulting in cracks and water penetration.
The City uses the latest technology to repair these in a cost-effective manner. In addition, the City has laboratories with highly qualified staff to control the quality of the materials used in these operations.
Our team discussed several concepts based on aerospace experiences that might be useful in advancing the technology for repair of potholes with the objective of providing more durable repairs with minimal cost impact. These included the use of reinforcing fibers in the asphalt-aggregate mix; fabrics to better distribute loads; water-impermeable membranes; a layered-material concept (analogous to the technology developed for armor/ballistic protection for personnel and helicopters); and preparation of the substrate before applying the repair material.
At the conclusion of the meeting, it was agreed that our team, working in collaboration with City’s experts and staff, may very well be able to develop an improved technology for pothole repairs.
Many administrative details will need to be resolved.
Meanwhile the City representatives suggested that our team visit the City’s laboratories to gain a better understanding of the capabilities and operations performed. Following this meeting, we will further explore viable concepts for advancing the technology with a goal of improving the effectiveness and durability of repairs in a cost-effective manner.
We also discussed the idea of the City licensing the resulting technology to other cities in order to derive revenues that can be used for street maintenance and perhaps other transportation needs.
Moral to this story: Los Angeles citizens are an important resource for the City. Their ideas and expertise should not be overlooked. Congratulations to Councilman Bill Rosendahl for recognizing a good idea and a citizen resource when he sees it. (George Epstein is a long-time citizen activist. He is an expert I a number of fields. Epstein can be reached at
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) ◘
CityWatch
Vol 6 Issue 62
Pub: August 1, 2008
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