Dear Future President,

Were you aware that the frequency of maintenance to keep our roads fixed is closing down family businesses all over the states? Construction is a major inconvenience to commuters and business owners. That’s why the US should try their best to make sure we use the best methods for infrastructure so that the people don’t have to deal with the repercussions of construction as often.

I have a close family friend who owns a mexican food restaurant on Robert street in West Saint Paul. Because of all the construction that’s been happening over the past 2 years with 1 more year to go, his business has suffered greatly due to the fact that his restaurant is not getting customers because the construction is detouring everyone. Not only is he getting less business but because he’s not getting the amount of money that he needs to keep his restaurant, he’s also having to let go workers who have families that they need to support. He had 6 employees and is now at 3 that’s a 50% drop, meaning there’s now 3 families who aren’t getting the financial support that they need.

Construction in the US costs about 3-5 million dollars per mile in an urban area and has to be redone about every 5 years due the cheap materials being used bad designs. For a little bit of higher cost for materials, you can construct better quality roads that don’t have to be redone so often. The roads in Europe only have to be done every 15 years because of the better quality materials.

Overly frequent construction is a very big issue because it causes unemployment. When there is construction on a road that blocks a business and creates a detour for customers which causes business owners to receive a very low income and even sometimes close down due to no business. Also the US is spending more money on reconstructing the roads so frequently in the long term compared to the amount of money they’d put down when using better materials and making longer lasting roads.

The solution for bad, short lasting roads is simple: use better materials. This will help business owners not close down when it’s time for construction and pay lower fees for roads in the long term.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter,

Sylvia Selena