U.S. cities have a pothole problem. An estimated 55 million of these pesky pits litter roads across the country, and some of them have the potential to do serious damage.
One such pothole in McComb, Mississippi, has been around for so long that residents included it in this year’s holiday decor.
Decked out in tinsel, spray-painted pine cones, white leaves, and holly berries, the yellow traffic cone that sits atop McComb’s massive pothole is an attempt to grab the city’s attention, according to the Enterprise-Journal. Residents plan to add lights to the Christmas ensemble too.
It’s unclear just how big McComb’s pothole is or how long residents have been asking the city to fill it, but they’re sick of it being in the way and want the city to do something about it.
Their cheery method might work too. It worked for Frank Sereno, a Kansas City, Missouri, resident who threw a birthday party for a 3-month-old pothole, which he called “a symptom of our deteriorating road conditions.” The cake, lit candles, and confetti certainly caught the city’s attention, because the pothole was filled soon after.
Potholes have become a more common occurrence as infrastructure budgets plummet. One out of every 5 miles of highway pavement is in poor condition, according to a 2017 infrastructure report card by the American Society of Civil Engineers, and most cities don’t have the money to fix them. In fact, as of 2017, there was an $836 billion backlog of road expenditures.
The problem is particularly bad in the Midwest, where cooling temperatures render the asphalt less flexible, making it more susceptible to cracks.
In Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed an unpopular solution: a gas tax. The effort was struck down by the Republican-led legislature, and instead, the Michigan GOP included a $400 million one-time expenditure in the state’s budget.
But some remain skeptical that one-time expenditures such as Michigan’s will be enough to fix what is a long-running problem.
“Everybody understands that infrastructure needs help, but there’s really no mechanisms to fund it other than the gas taxes, and most cities and states aren’t willing to approve gas tax increases because nobody wants money coming out of their pockets,” says Greg Bolon, director of operations for Kansas City’s public works department. “So it’s kind of a vicious circle there: that the funding’s not there nor are the resources. And it’s going to be one of those things that’s going to keep continuing to get worse until things are finally funded.”
Until a long-term solution is reached, perhaps more communities will adopt McComb’s strategy. After all, even the potholes could use a little Christmas cheer.
