Opinion: Whose pothole is it anyway?

By Vanesa Brashier, Bluebonnet News publisher

Every time I write an article about a road project in Liberty County, I can almost predict what the Facebook comments will say.

“Why aren’t they fixing Highway 90?”

“What about FM 1960?”

“They need to quit wasting money and repave my street.”

“The city really needs to fix that pothole.”

Sometimes that’s true.

Sometimes it’s about as accurate as blaming Brookshire Brothers because H-E-B ran out of milk.

One of the biggest misconceptions in local government is that every road inside a city’s limits belongs to the city. It seems logical enough. If you’re driving through Dayton, Liberty, or Cleveland, surely the city is in charge, right?

Well, not exactly. Roads don’t pay much attention to city limit signs. They cross them all the time without changing owners. In Texas, roads have different owners, and ownership determines who maintains them.

City streets—the neighborhood roads, many downtown streets, and local thoroughfares—are generally maintained by the city.

County roads are maintained by the county through your county commissioner’s precinct.

Then there are state highways, U.S. highways, Farm-to-Market roads, and even interstates, which are maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). That surprises a lot of people.

For example, U.S. Highway 90 through both Dayton and Liberty is a TxDOT roadway. Houston St. in Cleveland is sort of an extension of SH 321 and is maintained by the state. Likewise, Main St. in Liberty is maintained by TxDOT. Many Farm-to-Market roads that run through our cities are state roads, even though they’re surrounded by neighborhoods and businesses.

In Cleveland, Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 belongs to TxDOT. The Grand Parkway (I-99) is also maintained by the state. The bypasses in Cleveland and Liberty also are maintained by TxDOT. The pavement that gets potholes that are filled with water in front of Sonic in Cleveland is yet another example of roadway owned by the state. The Cleveland City Council can’t decide it’s time to repave Washington St. any more than it can paint the San Jacinto Monument.

Imagine walking over to your neighbor’s house, replacing their roof and then sending them the bill. That’s essentially what people are asking cities to do when they expect them to repair roads they don’t own. Government doesn’t work that way.

That doesn’t mean city officials throw up their hands and say, “Not our problem.” In fact, if you ask most of them, they are in frequent contact with TxDOT and state legislators, trying to get more funding for roads and bridges in the county and in their respective cities. They advocate for improvements and help residents get their concerns to the right people. They can’t simply spend city tax dollars repairing someone else’s infrastructure.

The next time you hit a pothole, notice a broken traffic signal, or wonder why a road hasn’t been resurfaced, ask yourself one question before firing up Facebook:

Who owns the road?

The answer may be the city. It may be Liberty County, or it may be TxDOT.

Knowing the difference won’t make the pothole disappear any faster, but it will help get your complaint to the people who actually have the authority—and the budget—to fix it.

After all, everyone complains about roads. We might as well complain to the people who own them.