Heavy equipment is back on the scene — and a metal plate on the way, a reader tells us — at the corner of White Oak Dr. and Beauchamp in Woodland Heights, adjacent to White Oak Bayou, where a hole suddenly appeared in freshly spread asphalt just hours after the street was resurfaced yesterday.
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“The super new shiny paving job on White Oak Drive lasted exactly half a day,” a reader tells Swamplot. “A manhole-sized sinkhole opened up right as the steamrollers were doing their final compaction trip. Apparently there is a void space under the concrete. According to contractors onsite, the void is at least three or four feet deep.” The problem appears to be an erosion issue connected to the storm sewer.
Photos: Swamplot inbox
That Sinking Feeling
How on earth did white oak get repaved over the numerous streets in Houston that are more in need of it? Does this have anything to do with the mayor living in the neighborhood?
This soaking weather does reveal shoddy road construction…
But that hole is probably from a culvert install not any re-paving effort.
The section of White Oak between Studewood and Houston Ave. was badly in need of repaving, no matter who happens to live there.
The mayor lives in the Westmoreland Place neighborhood. That’s in Montrose.
Houstonian–the Mayor lives in Montrose amongst some streets in horrendous condition.
But I understand your frustration. Repaving Washington a few years ago was completely unnecessary while Westheimer crumbled away for example.
Pothole repair in Houston is comical. We hire general contractors that do nothing but patch with bunch of generic brand or Harwin knock-off Band-Aids. They look good and work the first day but fall off after that. But then again you do get what you pay for.
Unless the Mayor has moved, she doesn’t live anywhere close to White Oak
Mayor Parker doesn’t live in that neighborhood.
The pavement was analyzed with a super high-tech truck. It’s made in Germany. You know the Germans always make good stuff.
@ Houstonian, perhaps you are thinking of Mayor Whitmire.
My bad – I thought she lived in the heights for some reason. Anyway – with people now paying taxes four or five times higher than what the same lots cost 10 or 15 years ago, you’d think there would be more infrastructure improvement. But, no, we are still driving around on the same original streets. Ironically, the only original streets they remove have historical value though that’s another issue entirely. Where the heck does the tax money go? westheimer was certainly needed but basically when there is an improvement it’s like totally random who gets it. Should we sacrifice a goat and hope our street gets an improvement?
should they have known better than to just repave over that? there are ways to tell if it’s solid or not under there.
Ha! This is just the the beginning of a total infrastructure collapse in this ‘City’ people… I’ve been speaking out on it for years… Each time I do I get the same ole same ole from the Mayor’s office and city engineers at PWE; “well we have been underfunding infrastructure for 30+ years and until we pay off the debt on the previous bonds we can’t rely do much”… I got news for us, keep kicking down line administration after administration and we is gonna be in TROUBLE! This is obviously a collapse of the une’er ground Storm sewers which happens all over this town…
However, we can spend $750k on e-bikes?! Who knows how much for decoration street lighting in the Westemoreland neighborhood the ‘Mayor’ lives in… I live in the First Montose Conmons, a stone throw from Westmoreland and our roads were last done in 1914 along with now non existent sidewalks! We did not get decorative lighting…lol
You think it is bad now, get ready for the $10M repaving of Allen Parkway from downtown to Shepherd! With no underground utility improvements mind you. I guess they will take care of that in another ’30 years’?!
I love how the roads can totally collapse in Sharpstown (Bissonnet has been a nightmare for years) and nobody bats an eye. But a few potholes appear in the Gentrified Heights, and it’s the end of the world. (Nicely captured by Kineticd).
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*Sigh*. Well. Not my problem any more. I’m done railing against this bullshit. I’m in Sugar Land now, where not only do they Fix streets, they *gasp* CLEAN THEM!.
That’s not a pothole, ZAW. And enough with the gentrification BS. Also, no on said it’s the end of the World. SMH
@Adam, I saw your LTTE that got selected for chron.com last week.
I would hope there is recourse available against the contractors there (unless it was our engineers at fault). Houston has a lot of money flowing to construction firms these days, which means they have the leverage to push for more accountability, if they want to.