You don't have to be an engineer to see that many of Central Oregon's highways are falling apart. The roads are scarred with wheel ruts and littered with potholes and haphazard patch jobs. Exhibit number one being the Bend Parkway.
Conventional wisdom tells us that Oregon's practice of allowing studded tires on its roadways is the reason that our streets are in such sorry shape. And there's a good amount of scientific evidence that says that particular piece of conventional wisdom is right on. One estimate put the annual bill for studded tire damage on Oregon roads at $11 million.
There is another theory that has circulated among certain circles, one that I came across early on in my reporting career here in Central Oregon that has never been substantiated - at least to my knowledge. This theory, really more a rumor, held that some of the damage to our roads could be chalked up to lousy materials.
But even those who never heard whisper of an "asphalt conspiracy" would have been interested to hear what a former Oregon Department of Transportation employee had to say during a sparsely attended hearing in Bend last week. Michael Ray Perry told an administrative law judge that he personally tested hundreds of road projects that failed to meet state standards, some of which have already started to fall apart. Moreover, Perry said supervisors routinely dismissed his findings in an effort to keep projects steaming along.
