SACRAMENTO — Three thousand miles. That’s the distance to Miami but also how many miles of roads the city of Sacramento has to maintain. Now, transportation officials say they don’t have enough money to keep up.
Streets around the city are filled with cracks, bumps, ruts and plenty of potholes.
“Every road I drive down, there’s a pothole,” driver Robert Briley said. “It’s bad.”
Briley and other drivers are worried about those bad roads causing damage to their cars.
“Popped tires, shocks, the wear and tear on your vehicle,” driver Maya Barries said.
“This is a Cadillac and it shouldn’t be abused like that,” Briley said of his vehicle.
Transportation officials rank the roads on a scale of 1 to 100 using what’s called the pavement condition index. In the city of Sacramento, the average is currently 55, which is considered “fair.” County roads are even worse, averaging 46 on the scale.
So why are Sacramento roads so bad?