A Day With the Pothole Crew

Sonoma County roads have consistently ranked as some of the worst in the region. They are so bad in Petaluma that the Grand Jury in their most recent report specifically called on the city to address the problem.

But city staff estimate that some $6 million a year is needed to maintain current pavement condition and say it's "highly unlikely" that funds can be found in the near future to address the problem. Still, city crews are doing their best to repair streets, focusing first on "collectors," medium sized streets that connect residential streets to big thoroughfares.

Another issue is that much of the city is built on adobe soil, which expands in the winter and contracts in the summer, providing a less stable foundation for road base. That's typically dealt with by digging deeper, which increases the cost of a project.

A Gordian Knot if there ever was one.