savannah state university road sustainment time

Running head: SSU Road Sustainment Time 1

Savannah State University Road Sustainment Time

By

Mario Williams

Jamila Reed

Jamar Feggins

Brian Hayward

Raydell Martin

SSU Road Sustainment Time 2

Introduction

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to ride in a cement mixer? Just try driving

over some of the potholes here at Savannah State!" Get it? Nobody wants to drive on a road

where hazardous potholes are present. It really makes you wonder if the school ever put any

serious efforts toward the maintenance of its roads. Year after year, potholes always seem to find

their way onto our university campus streets. Historically, the meaning of the term pot holes is

worldwide relating to road maintenance and the term has simply meant "holes in a road surface

because they are the size and shape of pots". Appropriately, potholes, like the name suggest to an

acceptable degree, are usually circular in shape. The rest is history. Because as more people

acquired cars and discovered motoring, more roads were built. And as more roads stretched from

sea to shining sea, more potholes popped up (actually, popped down-- potholes always go down)

(Pothole Organization, 2016). To give more clarity, "rainwater sinks through cracks in old or

weakened asphalt. The water is soaked up by the mixture of rock, gravel, and sand that supports

the road. Just like everywhere else, vehicles passing over the campus roads force water through

the soggy roadbed, eventually eroding parts of it” (Suen & Ho, 2011, p. 71).

Almost all of us at Savannah State have grumbled about our University's seemingly

endless slate of beautification projects and "campus improvements." Many of us, myself

included, have sometimes wondered: What is the logic behind maintaining a beautiful campus?

Can we justify spending $78 million on repaving the roads at a time when the financial burden of

college has become prohibitive for many? Expenditures like these can be quite difficult to

reconcile with our sense of practicality. The quality of the roads here at Savannah State

University is a pressing issue. Whether one agrees or not, the way our campus looks has a deep


symbolic meaning (Petroski, 2016). Through careful research, one of our students observed that

one family of three potholes on the N Thompkins Rd right end were not mended for a total of

120 days consecutively. Clearly, the efficiency of our current university road repair system is

what we want to aid in improving (Stack Exchange Organization, 2016).

Savannah State University campus potholes cause expensive car damage to faculty,

visitor and student vehicles when vehicles hit deep, dreaded divots in the road from steering

system misalignment to a full-on tire puncture or bent rims (Firestone Complete Autocare

Organization, 2010). Potholes on our campus are a problem because these abrupt breaks in

pavement come in all shapes and sizes, cause thousands of dollars of damage to school and city

buses, cars and trucks, and they're a growing campus fiscal problem for local, state and national

budgets What we are going to talk about in this paper is the strategy to fix the pothole nuisance

problem that we face on Savannah State University campus by implementing a R.S.T. or Road

Sustainment Time project that addresses regular repair and funding toward safe road conditions

on Savannah State University's campus in a faster more efficient way than what we already have.


Review of the Literature

The Problem with Potholes

Roads and means of transport make a crucial contribution to economic development and

growth and bring important social benefits. Poorly maintained roads constrain mobility;

significantly raise vehicle operating costs, and increase accident rates and their associated human

and property costs. Without regular maintenance, roads can rapidly fall into disrepair, preventing

realization of the longer term impacts of road improvements on development, such as increased

growth in school enrollment (Rusbintardio, 2015).)

Postponing road maintenance results in high direct and indirect costs. If road defects are

repaired promptly, the cost is usually modest. If defects are neglected, an entire road section may

fail completely, requiring full reconstruction at three times or more the cost, on average, of

maintenance costs (Mohammed, 2012; Timothy & Kudzani,, 2012; Panda, 2013; Wasike, 2001;

Belleville, 2001).

What Causes Potholes

Asphalt sinks into the eroded portions of the roadbed and eventually cracks under the

continued impact of vehicle tires. Chunks become loose, and potholes are formed (Summit

Engineer Organization, 2008). The fear of having a tire burst or worse-- hitting someone-- in an

effort to avoid pot holes is the most frequent talked-about topic on school grounds (Summit

Engineer Organization, 2008). Officials have made some efforts to manage the spread of pot

holes but, by the looks of the road, there really has not been any significant improvement.

When the condition of campus or college roads and pathways are smooth and intact,

transport and movement within the institution’s property is very smooth and easy. On the other


hand, when potholes develop, it becomes a nightmare to all the college fraternity and even

visitors. Portholes develop when water gets into cracks in roads and pavements and freezes,

something which leads to break up after the process of expansion (4 Road Service Organization,

n.d.)

When this water finally melts, continuous pressure from people and vehicles leads to

formation of portholes. This condition, if not rectified, makes life on campus very hard. This gets

worse if the roads are being used by faculty vehicles or those of visitors. When the potholes get

repaired, a lot of people benefit in the process. If repaired this challenge of taking a longer route

to avoid the portholes will not be there and people walking will avoid the waste of time (Pothole

PB Works Organization, n.d.). This is, however, avoided when the roads are safe.

Fixing Potholes

Fixing potholes properly is the most important thing, especially on a college campus. The

main reason why these potholes keep re-appearing is because the way the hole is being

constructed along with the cement type (Smart Growth America Organization, n.d.). To make

these pothole repairs last a long time, you have to make sure the shape of the hole is correct. That

shape must resemble or be similar to an ice cream cone shape, wider at the top than it is at the

bottom. The difficulty level of fixing these on-going potholes is not hard, so I do not know why

they keep continue to be a problem after many years. If you want to repair a pothole, the best

time to do it will be when the temperature is in the 50-65F degree range. The proper

cement/concrete type to use to fix potholes would be to mix cement and aggregate mix together

(ABI, 2012; InstarmarcGroup, 2010; KentVideoProductions, 2014; Rutter, 2009). 4

This mixture is not only cost friendly, but it also gets the job done. Once you have the dry

cement aggregate mixed together, make sure that you add water to the dry mix because you must


have the right consistency. The mix should not have too much water nor not enough. You have to

clean the pothole that you are going to fix (Public Works Organization, 2010). Make sure that

hole is properly clean with no dirt or debris in the way before you begin to fill it up. You can use

a tamper or any other tool to clean the bottom of the hole. After you have gotten the hole clean,

sprinkle water on the surface. Third, you will pour the mixture into the pothole, but do not fill it

up to the top. Only fill it up until it is an approximately two inches deep. Fourth, after you have

applied the two inches of cement mix into the hole, reapply the cement in two inch increments

until the pothole has been filled. Fifth and lastly, once the pothole has been filled up and

compacted, apply a small crown over the repair area (Potholes PB Works Organization, 1978).

Make sure to protect the newly filled holes by using bricks painted white and place them

around the pothole. The cement mix in the hole has to be untouched for at least five to six hours

and it takes twenty-four hours for the fill material to harden. With these proper pothole repairing

methods, these patches would last longer and our campus roads will look more beautiful. It is a

must that our campus have the proper road ways for drivers to drive their cars on and it is very

important that the student, facility, and visitors of the campus have a nice and proper road to

drive. If they do not, it can cause plenty of safety hazards.

The Benefits of Repairing Potholes

The people using cars and any other vehicles by the faculty or visitors of the college also

enjoy free and smooth rides. A road with potholes leads to time wastage when vehicles try to

avoid the damaged areas (Langley, 1999).) They have to wait for one another as they cannot

swerve around the other vehicles. This causes jams mostly when the number of vehicles is very

big. In the process, drivers will avoid unnecessary on-campus collisions if the roads are clear.


Potholes are known to damage the wheels of vehicles which make repairs costly. Smooth

roads on campus will not cause any of these challenges. When the road conditions are poor, the

school buses that transport students and faculty within and outside campus are not left out by the

menace of portholes. The passengers get tossed around. Those few who happen to be standing

find the condition very much annoying. The rides are however full of fun on smooth roads.

Faculty drivers and visitors also enjoy smooth rides in their cars. Visitors also enjoy a nice and

friendly environment when they come to visit (Island Packet Organization, 2009) All in all,

portholes are supposed to get fixed in time before they become a nuisance and damage the nice

picture of a campus (Kiessling, 2003; Petersen, 2006). .

Recommendations

Elvin Ogden, Director of Savannah State University Physical, Plant was interviewed.

When asked the question, Do we have funds to replace the roads? He responded as follows, “ We

have funds to replace the road. We have developed construction documents and forwarded them

to the Board of Regents for review and approval. Once the documents are approved we will put

them out for bid which is a process where we ask vendors/contractors to give us a price to

replace the road. We hope to have a contractor identified before the fall semester and start the

actual road replacement by the time the fall semester starts. Once a contractor is identified before

the fall semester and start the actual road replacement by the time the fall semester starts. Once a

contractor is identified Vice President for Business and Finance put out a detailed schedule of

how the road construction will take place.”

There are approximately forty five major potholes that have been documented to receive

attention by the Savannah State University Physical Plant. We propose an unequivocal forthright

plan of pothole repair of the Savannah State University campus roads that we will call R.S.T. or


Road Sustainment Time. We recommend replacing each side of the campus every 10 business

days for 40 consecutive days. From the entrance on Laroache leading into N Thompkins Rd right

end constitutes side one. S Thompkins Rd To College Street constitutes side two. College Ave to

Falligant Avenue constitutes side three. Finally, Whatley Avenue, Asa H Gordon Library, Back to

the left end N Thompkins Rd constitutes side four making a complete cycle. We recommend

replacing the entire circumference of the campus roads in a much uninterrupted hard and fast

unceasing motion. We will call this mandatory scheduled road maintenance “RST-Road

Sustainment Time”. We recommend contracting and recruiting this mandatory road maintenance

every 90 days to fix new potholes that become apparent and visible. R.S.T. will be the go-to forty

day system to get a completely fixed campus road system all inside of one reasonable time

period as opposed to fixing one group of potholes while other groups of potholes simultaneously

appear.


Conclusion

Taking everything into account, the people using cars- faculty or visitors --of the college

can enjoy free and smooth rides. A road with potholes leads to time wastage when vehicles try to

avoid the damaged areas (Lowes Organization, 2016).

All in all, potholes are supposed to get fixed in time before they become a nuisance and

damage to vehicles on the campus. We are asking for $500,000.00 for infrastructure expenses of

R.S.T. and the formation of four operation committees and four pothole alert task forces. The

five hundred thousand dollars will be used for payroll, materials, and operating expenses to run

the R.S.T. project every ninety days. We have this grant, and this is an important issue as we

have said. Don't let this come to where the school gets sued because someone is hurt or killed

because of the roads.


Appendix


References

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Education

savannah state university road sustainment time