New Mexico "Patch"

[triplemultiplex]

For the second consecutive fall, I find myself working a project in New Mexico.  They've got some bad roads in this state, but there is a specific thing I've noticed that is really common here and nowhere else I've been.  I call it a "New Mexico Patch".

It's a kind of cheap fix for an especially terrible piece of road and I've seen it in progress. They dump asphalt over the offending section, level it off with a grader and then compact it with a small steam roller.

The result is almost as rough as when they started.  Most of the time, the tire tracks from the grader are not smoothed out so it's like driving over a rumble strip.  The new asphalt starts flaking off the underlying pavement almost immediately, resulting in potholes after only a short time.  The transition on and off of these patches is always rough and the patch itself is somehow louder than the chip-seal you've been driving on.

I hate these "New Mexico Patches" because of how rough they are, but also because it seems extremely cheap and doesn't really help the situation.  It's a substitute for actually fixing the damn road.  I have even seen this on interstates.  It has always been NMDOT crews doing this work every time I've seen it.  Don't they have any asphalt paving machines?  Jeez.
Is this at all common anywhere else in the Southwest?  I did not see this in Utah earlier this year.

[vdeane]

I think I saw something like this on NY 22 in northern Columbia County.  It was rather disconcerting and I was very glad to get back on the older pavement.

[KG909]

My whole city did this shit with roads I'd say with pavement over 15 years old. My street looked better before. Thankfully, it's not as bad as the NM patches

[Rick1962]

Oklahoma does crap like that, too. It's especially galling when used on recently resurfaced roads that start crumbling prematurely due to our lousy contractors.

Kindle Fire 2

[Brandon]

3MX, you need to drive in Chicago more. 
Far, far too many streets are exactly like that.

[Brian556]

This is standard TxDOT practice. Only if part of the damaged pavement is too high will they remove it. When they do remove it, they don't use a saw. Just the teeth on the grader, and maybe the Gradall (Wheeled backhoe truck).

The cities do not do this. They cut out the damaged area, and redo it neatly.

When I was working for TxDot, they paved 9 miles of one road, and 2 miles of another with this method.

I don't get why the states have such a low standard. To me this attitude towards repairs comes from people from rural areas, and is similar to the "duct tape will fix anything" mentality.

[SD Mapman]

I don't get why the states have such a low standard. To me this attitude towards repairs comes from people from rural areas, and is similar to the "duct tape will fix anything" mentality.

We don't do that in SD, as far as I know, and we're pretty rural.

[DJStephens]

There is a section of the recently reconstructed I-10 to I-25 N ramp (exit 144) where this is clearly apparent.   The original concrete pavement (with diagonal sawcuts) was rubbilized and replaced with new basecourse and asphalt pavement.  As part of a reconstruction project finished in 2012.  Dont know if they redid the subgrade underneath.   Am guessing largely no.  Improper compaction and or non engineered fill settled and caused subsidence.  Asphalt was simply "dumped" into the depression, without creating a "edge" for it to "attach" to.  obviously for reasons of traffic disruption.  Appears to be of coarse grade,  but not quite millings grade. 
Other historical problem areas are soft soil areas near Hatch (Exit 41, I-25) where a section of southbound I-25 had be patched, repaved and rebuilt several times.   The southern end of the Alamogordo "relief" route (US 54 / 70 ) has a terrible section with heaving and uneven pavement due to subsidence and or expansions of the underlying soft or clayey / sandy soils. 

[hm insulators]

For the second consecutive fall, I find myself working a project in New Mexico.  They've got some bad roads in this state, but there is a specific thing I've noticed that is really common here and nowhere else I've been.  I call it a "New Mexico Patch".

It's a kind of cheap fix for an especially terrible piece of road and I've seen it in progress. They dump asphalt over the offending section, level it off with a grader and then compact it with a small steam roller.

The result is almost as rough as when they started.  Most of the time, the tire tracks from the grader are not smoothed out so it's like driving over a rumble strip.  The new asphalt starts flaking off the underlying pavement almost immediately, resulting in potholes after only a short time.  The transition on and off of these patches is always rough and the patch itself is somehow louder than the chip-seal you've been driving on.

I hate these "New Mexico Patches" because of how rough they are, but also because it seems extremely cheap and doesn't really help the situation.  It's a substitute for actually fixing the damn road.  I have even seen this on interstates.  It has always been NMDOT crews doing this work every time I've seen it.  Don't they have any asphalt paving machines?  Jeez.
Is this at all common anywhere else in the Southwest?  I did not see this in Utah earlier this year.

Those asphalt patches were common on Hawaii 50 on Kauai (and presumably some of the other state highways on other islands) when I lived there. Same process as what you mention in New Mexico.

[cl94]

Erie County, NY does this quite often. County doesn't have the money for a proper resurfacing, so they dump asphalt on top and hope for the best. What's sad is that it's sometimes better than what it replaced.

[mrose]

I just did the Denver-Dallas thing this past week, and this practice seems to have been applied to many parts of US 87. To make matters worse I had to deal with snow and some very questionable plowing practices both on the NM side and into Texas.

Frequently for sections at a time, the ruts would fill with snow and I'd have to keep my wheels either on the high spots or on the shoulder. A lot of people were driving in the shoulders.

From Clayton to Dumas, I pretty much had to keep it at 40 or less... there were cars in ditches all over the place.

[rarnold]

US 56 in the Oklahoma Panhandle is like that as well. Some places look like a patchwork quilt and it spalls really bad. Truck traffic causes the most problem because the patch never fully hardens so it stays soft and the big rigs just push the asphalt right out. Some of the holes are big too, a Chevrolet Spark might get lost in one.

[qguy]

I've seen this on some of the township-maintained roads near where I live. My son calls them "Lightning McQueen pave jobs" after the character in the Cars movies.

[JKRhodes]

191 through the Black Hills between Safford and Morenci, Arizona has several of these treatments as well.

[MCRoads]

I've seen this on some of the township-maintained roads near where I live. My son calls them "Lightning McQueen pave jobs" after the character in the Cars movies.

That, my friend is EXACTLY what I thought wile reading the OPs post, lol.

Kinda reminds me of what they did to my neighborhood  in SE OKC. I found an e-mail address for the city and sent them a nice little nasty gram.

[mgk920]

I've seen this on some of the township-maintained roads near where I live. My son calls them "Lightning McQueen pave jobs" after the character in the Cars movies.

Ditto townships here in Wisconsin.  These cheap road patch jobs embarrass me as a City of Appleton resident because most out-of-towners think that they are in the city when in fact they're in one of these über-cheap townships.  They do that to keep the townships' tax rates below those of the cities in order to prevent annexations.



Mike

[Max Rockatansky]

The impression I always got about New Mexico when I worked in the southern half of the states was that NMDOT was way overwhelmed with maintenance work and way under budget.  The amount of state maintained roadways in New Mexico is absolutely massive and seem to have little standards beyond "paved."  Generally I'm used to a state highway being some sort of assurance that you're on a quality road, that definitely isn't the case in New Mexico.  I would compare most state routes to poorly maintained Signed county routes out here in California.

[SD Mapman]

The impression I always got about New Mexico when I worked in the southern half of the states was that NMDOT was way overwhelmed with maintenance work and way under budget.  The amount of state maintained roadways in New Mexico is absolutely massive and seem to have little standards beyond "paved."  Generally I'm used to a state highway being some sort of assurance that you're on a quality road, that definitely isn't the case in New Mexico.  I would compare most state routes to poorly maintained Signed county routes out here in California.

Heck, paved isn't even a standard! https://www.google.com/maps/@36.9478131,-103.4685163,3a,77.1y,239.65h,74.73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1suAj-5jZc594LU9CW7yexig!2e0!7i3328!8i1664

The gravel was horrible quality too.

[Max Rockatansky]

The impression I always got about New Mexico when I worked in the southern half of the states was that NMDOT was way overwhelmed with maintenance work and way under budget.  The amount of state maintained roadways in New Mexico is absolutely massive and seem to have little standards beyond "paved."  Generally I'm used to a state highway being some sort of assurance that you're on a quality road, that definitely isn't the case in New Mexico.  I would compare most state routes to poorly maintained Signed county routes out here in California.

Heck, paved isn't even a standard! https://www.google.com/maps/@36.9478131,-103.4685163,3a,77.1y,239.65h,74.73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1suAj-5jZc594LU9CW7yexig!2e0!7i3328!8i1664

The gravel was horrible quality too.

NM 506 was like that too a little past US 54 to the Texas State Line:

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.5277735,-106.0153094,1318m/data=!3m1!1e3

The really fun things with New Mexico State highways is trying to figure where the seemingly random designations go.  There is usually some sort of weird terminus that ends at a ghost town or some strange place on a state line.  The state is so haggard and remote that Wikipedia doesn't even have the bulk of the highways, Steve Riner's page is better by far:

http://www.steve-riner.com/nmhighways/NM501-550.htm

[DJStephens]

The impression I always got about New Mexico when I worked in the southern half of the states was that NMDOT was way overwhelmed with maintenance work and way under budget.  The amount of state maintained roadways in New Mexico is absolutely massive and seem to have little standards beyond "paved."  Generally I'm used to a state highway being some sort of assurance that you're on a quality road, that definitely isn't the case in New Mexico.  I would compare most state routes to poorly maintained Signed county routes out here in California.

Former governors Johnson (Jan '95 - Jan '03) and Richardson (Jan '03 - Jan '11) literally pissed away hundreds of millions, if not low billions on low quality/regressive designed four lane projects, some on lightly used corridors, and pet trains and spaceport.   

[triplemultiplex]

Heck, paved isn't even a standard! https://www.google.com/maps/@36.9478131,-103.4685163,3a,77.1y,239.65h,74.73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1suAj-5jZc594LU9CW7yexig!2e0!7i3328!8i1664

The gravel was horrible quality too.

Don't get me started on NM's gravel state routes.  The bane of my life in fall 2013.

[qguy]

literally pissed away hundreds of millions, if not low billions

(emphasis added)

Sounds way worse than passing an ordinary kidney stone!