Much has been made of the pothole program that Governor McDonnell put in place this year. Loudoun County Traffic wrote about it.

After repairing more than 120,000 pot holes since the launch Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s pothole blitz, the program has been extended through April 15.

“This has been a team effort starting with Virginia’s citizens who have helped identify and report potholes along their travels to VDOT’s Web site and call-in line,” said Governor Bob McDonnell in a press release. “I would like to especially thank VDOT and its contractors who have worked day and night to save many motorists the grief and annoyance, and potential damage to their vehicle. The blitz is working so we’re going to keep it up, and we ask citizens to continue reporting potholes as soon as they develop.” – Loudoun County Traffic

It may not be quite as “successful” as originally reported, however. Tammi M’s Living in LoCo blog explains.

VDOT is out in the area filling in the big cracks and a few potholes by laying down gravel and going over it with a spray of tar. It doesn’t set immediately and drivers are finding that when they drive over these “fixes” they’re spraying gravel all over the place. I witnessed one car skid around a corner and through a newly applied patch, spraying a fair amount onto kids walking home from the bus stop

A few neighbors have talked about how they’re finding bits of tar on their cars and in their houses since pets and people are walking through it unaware that it is still loose. – Living in LoCo

Follow through below to consider the implications of playing fast and loose with tar and gravel.I think kids getting sprayed with tar is pretty awful, but that’s just me. Similarly, I think getting sticky splatter all over my car is unpleasant. In my opinion, if we’re going to repair roads, we should do it in such a way as to avoid splattering kids and cars with crude oil products.

There’s a difference between doing a job fast, and doing a job right. Simply spraying tar over a gravel fill, on roads that have the level of traffic we have here in Loudoun, is more than insufficient, it’s a waste of time and money. At a time when we don’t have transportation money to waste, it seems likely that VDOT is going to have to go back and redo fills that are undone by traffic. That means that time won’t be used to fix other problems on our roads, and that money won’t be available for other critical needs.

But hey, at least Governor McDonnell is getting good press.

To report a pothole, Loudoun County motorists should visit www.virginiadot.org/, call VDOT’s Highway Helpline at 800-367-7623 (ROAD) or fill out an online pot hole repair request form.