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?

1. Running head: SSU Road Sustainment Time 1
Savannah State University Road Sustainment Time
By
Mario Williams
Jamila Reed
Jamar Feggins
Brian Hayward
Raydell Martin

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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

8. SSU Road Sustainment Time 8
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.

9. SSU Road Sustainment Time 9
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.

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Appendix

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References
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Service. Retrieved from http://www.4roadservice.com/savannah-georgia/truck-
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ABI. (2012, April 13). Repairing Potholes 101 - Gravel Driveway Maintenance by ABI [Video
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Belleville, B. (2001). River of Lakes: A Journey on Florida's St. Johns River. Athens, GA:
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of roads (Master’s thesis/).

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Petersen, T. R. (2006). A road runs through it: Reviving wild places (Vol. 1). Madison, WI: Big
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http://www.summitengineer.net/resources/learning/52-potholes

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Timothy, M., Mark, M., & Kudzanai, K. (2012). Dodging the Potholes: The spatio-distribution
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