Roads To Ruin?

(CBS/John Filo)

The primary reason why may surprise you. The cost of materials used to fix pavements has shot up a tremendous 33% in the past three years, rising far more quickly that inflation. That's partly due to rising fuel costs -- but mostly it's because there is a huge demand for those products in fast-growing China and India. So, highway repaving budgets don't stretch anywhere near as far as they sued to. The result? According to TRIP, a national transportation research group, a third of America's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition. It's a situation that costs everyone money -- you feel it in your wallet when worn roads and potholes send your car to the shop for alignment and suspension repairs.

In Pennsylvania, the Secretary of Transportation estimates he need $1.9 billion dollars more per year to catch up with repair demands -- it's so bad that a bridge we visited in tiny Dillsburg has been closed -- you can see right through the pavement to the stream below -- and won't see repairs for five years. That means all the school buses and emergency vehicles (not to mention the residents) that relied on that bridge now have to make a 6 mile detour.

Phil Gould doesn't need any statistics to tell him his ride is rougher than it used to be. He's been in the trucking business for 42 years, and he's seen a slow and steady decline in the condition of the nation's Interstates since they were created in the middle of the last century. I went for a long drive with Phil along I-81 in Central Pennsylvania to find out what the increase in potholes and slippery surfaces on our nation's highways means for his safety and his comfort level. One bad rut can flatten a tractor trailer's tire, creating a hazardous situation -- so it's something he thinks about a lot. "Anything needs to be maintained -- nothing lasts forever," he told me as we rolled through Harrisburg.