Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Addendum to Paul's Rant

So on our way home from Williamsburg on Sunday, we noticed something.
On every one of those arrow signs, there are TWO signs. One for traffic going FROM Williamsburg, one for those traveling TOWARDS Williamsburg. We didn't notice that because a lot of times we'll take the interstate or a country road out, then come back Old 50.
And there were 11 more signs than we originally thought - ones that were on the curve before we started counting. So that's 169 signs total.
So that adds $7200 to the cost of the signs.
And then Paul pointed out that the posts were silver, which were more expensive than the green signs we originally figured. $4 more. So that makes a difference of $676.
For a grand total of: $17,918.
Paul totaled it out to:
14 signs per mile.
$106.02 per sign.
$1518.47 per mile.
29c per foot.
Enjoy the scenic drive.

Yeah, I know this is a bit over the top. But government waste really rankles me. Here a couple years ago, these yellow signs showed up all over the county at railroad crossings. You know, because there were so many trucks with low-boy trailers getting high-centered. Apparently. It's like people are too dumb to realize that the same railroad crossing (or curvy road) has the same "perils" it has for however many years. So they must spend our hard-earned money to put up signs.
Sometimes I wonder if the people that make the decisions to spend money on these retarded projects have to pay taxes. You'd think if they did, they'd think twice about what they spend money on, since it's their money too.
Argh.
And may I mention AGAIN the shape that the roads are STILL in after the deluge two weeks ago? They can spend almost $20,000 on unnecessary signs, but apparently can't afford to pay a road maintainer to fix the washouts!



1 comment:

Tiffany said...

We drove home from Williamsburg on Old 50 Saturday night...just so we could see the signs...how annoying and ridiculous!!!!! What a waste of my tax dollars...no wonder the country tries to increase the value of my house every year...they have to make up for the useless spending. Great Rant!