going to pot

One result of Hurricane Enrique has gone unremarked on our local message boards -- probably because we have become so accustomed to the problem.

The deterioration of our roads. Poholes to be specific.

Highway 200 is the sole north-south coastal road in this part of Mexico. Everyone relies on it. Businesses. Tourists. Local folk going to and fro in their daily lives. It is what a northern traffic engineer would call a survival arterial.

American politicians are involved in a vigorous debate about infrastructure. What is it? Who should pay for it? Who has enough clout to pick off low-hanging fruit for the good of their constituents, if not for the nation's?

I live in a country that imposes the lowest rate of taxation of all 37 of the OECD countries. 16.5% of GDP. That compares with an OECD average of 33.8%. (If you are curious, the highest is Denmark at 46.3%. Canada is 33.5%. The United States is 24.5%.)

Mexico's current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), a populist leftist, believes that level of taxation is just about right for Mexico. He is trying to squeeze out more revenue by fighting corruption in what sounds like an almost-Reaganesque fight against "waste, fraud, and abuse."

For the time being, that leaves Mexican infrastructure where it is.

And where it is right now is exemplified by Highway 200. The portion of the highway that runs through our area is well-travelled by buses, trucks, and cars. The result of that traffic is always apparent.

As long as I have lived here, the road surface continually cracks -- as do all roads everywhere. Eventually, water works its way into the cracks and the roadbed subsides resulting in a pothole. Once breached the pothole will continue to grow.

The section of the highway that wends through Melaque underwent some minor cosmetic surgery in the early Spring. Potholes were filled with sand and then covered with asphalt patches. For about three months it was like driving on the autobahn to Bonn.

Then came the summer rains. The road held up well for the first rain. But the inches dropped by hurricane Enrique were just too much for the surface.

The highway did not flood. Or, at least, not in the way we think of floods with torrents of water tearing up things with gravity assisting its flow.

But the highway did flood in the sense that the rainwater had very few places to go. Vehicles driving through the water transferred enough energy that the seeping water combined with its churning tore away large hunks of the asphalt. The result is now a stretch of highway almost a mile long that looks as if it was set as a trap for Patton's 761st Tank Battalion. 

The road currently is unsightly. But, more important, it is a bit dangerous. To avoid disappearing into one of those next-stop-realignment holes, drivers have to learn to be expert slalom competitors.

The problem with that is that when drivers focus on the potholes, they are prone to not notice that their vehicle has strayed into the oncoming lane. I have seen several near-misses during the past couple days. I have been the cause of at least two.

So, what is to be done about it?

Not much. At least, until the state government can cough up enough funds to once again bandage the road with asphalt patches. Without a separate source of revenue (like tolls), waiting is what we do.

When you have a low income, you just make do with what you have.