Private Citizens Perform $4 Million Road Repair Job For Free in 8 Days

posted by Nima

April 10, 2009 · Posted in General Economics

Anyone who thinks we need government to build and maintain roads may want to consider Kauai residents don’t wait for state to repair road:

Their livelihood was being threatened, and they were tired of waiting for government help, so business owners and residents on Hawaii’s Kauai island pulled together and completed a $4 million repair job to a state park — for free.

Polihale State Park has been closed since severe flooding destroyed an access road to the park and damaged facilities in December.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources had estimated that the damage would cost $4 million to fix, money the agency doesn’t have, according to a news release from department Chairwoman Laura Thielen.

“It would not have been open this summer, and it probably wouldn’t be open next summer,” said Bruce Pleas, a local surfer who helped organize the volunteers. “They said it would probably take two years. And with the way they are cutting funds, we felt like they’d never get the money to fix it.”

And if the repairs weren’t made, some business owners faced the possibility of having to shut down.

Ivan Slack, co-owner of Napali Kayak, said his company relies solely on revenue from kayak tours and needs the state park to be open to operate. The company jumped in and donated resources because it knew that without the repairs, Napali Kayak would be in financial trouble.

“If the park is not open, it would be extreme for us, to say the least,” he said. “Bankruptcy would be imminent. How many years can you be expected to continue operating, owning 15-passenger vans, $2 million in insurance and a staff? For us, it was crucial, and our survival was dependent on it. That park is the key to the sheer survival of the business.”

So Slack, other business owners and residents made the decision not to sit on their hands and wait for state money that many expected would never come. Instead, they pulled together machinery and manpower and hit the ground running March 23. Watch the volunteers repairing the road »

And after only eight days, all of the repairs were done, Pleas said. It was a shockingly quick fix to a problem that may have taken much longer if they waited for state money to funnel in.

“We can wait around for the state or federal government to make this move, or we can go out and do our part,” Slack said. “Just like everyone’s sitting around waiting for a stimulus check, we were waiting for this but decided we couldn’t wait anymore.”

Thielen has been waiting, too. She wants the legislature to approve her Recreation Renaissance project, a $240 million booster shot to help fix parks across the state. Without it, at least five state parks may be forced to close, and there would be no emergency repair money to fix Polihale State Park.

“We shouldn’t have to do this, but when it gets to a state level, it just gets so bureaucratic, something that took us eight days would have taken them years,” said Troy Martin of Martin Steel, who donated machinery and steel for the repairs. “So we got together — the community — and we got it done.” See photos of the volunteers working to repair the road »

The park is a fixture on the west side of the island and a favorite spot for many in the area, but it’s also a hub for tourists.

“Tourism is our lifeblood. It’s what pays all of our bills,” Slack said. “The money that pours in comes from tourism is really an important factor for everyone here in Hawaii, and it’s such an important time to encourage tourism.”

And it’s an important time to keep jobs, which were threatened if the park had to remain closed. In February, Kauai’s unemployment rate was at 9.1 percent, up from 2.8 percent during the same time in 2008, according to Hawaii’s Department of Labor.

“I think it’s crucial to say the doors are open, everyone is ready,” Slack said. “So when one of the most important parks in Hawaii is closed, it really changes things.”

Now, because of their hard work, volunteers hope they’ll be ready to send that positive message — right in time for the tourist season.

Slack said he likes to have business up and running by April 15, and the season gets busy around May 1.

The business owners and residents are hopeful that their generous contributions in time and resources mean the park should officially open soon. Pleas says they have only to get the new bridge certified and do minor cleanup.

“A lot of people are quietly sitting by, waiting for it to open,” Slack said. “This really this is one of the nicest parks in the state and in all of Hawaii, in the entire state parks department. Now, hopefully, those people get their wish.”

It is a complete myth to believe we need government to manage roads. Throughout history, it has been common for private merchant associations to take care of municipal infrastructure. They did so not for altruistic reasons, but simple to maximize their own profit by maximizing traffic.

Anyone still wondering how their tax dollars are going to be wasted, here is your answer: $4 million for a job that private business can do for free in 8 days. Government contractors are already drooling after the insane profits they will be making off of overpriced stimulus deals.

Tags: infrastructure

Comments

19 Responses to “Private Citizens Perform $4 Million Road Repair Job For Free in 8 Days”

betaray on April 12th, 2009 8:20 am

Why shouldn’t someone profit off my needs for travel? Poor capital owners hardly get a break these days.
Retro Joe on April 12th, 2009 11:46 am

Okay, you’ve got a large point about bureaucracy sucking and us being able to do much more for ourselves, but c’mon: “It is a complete myth to believe we need government to manage roads.” Who’s gonna pay for highways through Mississippi and South Dakota, the people who live there? I wouldn’t think so. It seems like this makes sense to you, too, because your next point is about merchants’ associations and MUNICIPAL roads. Also, what about the costs of real roads as opposed to just a dirt regrade and a couple of bridge rebuilds in the Hawaii article?
Doug on April 12th, 2009 5:52 pm

Well, the govt doesn’t need to maintain roads where there are viable businesses which can do it. Those businesses should have made it a toll road. However, in the cases where there are lots of poor who do NOT have the financial resources to do this, it is not realistic to think they don’t need roads.

Also, your title is completely misleading, it’s not private citizens that did the work, it was several businesses. Not the govt, yes, but not citizens either.
mempko on April 13th, 2009 8:15 am

It was democracy in action, not “free market” in action. Nothing was traded, and no money exchanged hands. The market had nothing to do with this.

This is how democracy should work. They demonstrated how an anarchist society would work. It had nothing to do with “markets”, or private ownership, or anything silly like that.
Jimmie on April 13th, 2009 9:55 am

wow, so we pay taxes, give the money to government, and then we do the work for free? I think this will end badly… I think I’ll just go get some balls at http://yournuts.com
Nima on April 13th, 2009 11:16 am

Some answers to clarify the misunderstandings that most responses are based upon:

“Who’s gonna pay for highways through Mississippi and South Dakota, the people who live there?”

- Very simple. Whoever think they need a road going through Mississippi and South Dakota will pay for it. There is nothing complicated or arcane about this.

“in the cases where there are lots of poor who do NOT have the financial resources to do this, it is not realistic to think they don’t need roads.”

- You are now talking about the ability to AFFORD roads, not to build them. This is not an issue of government infrastructure management, but of welfare policy. Welfare programs can allocate money from wealthy to poor areas so that funding will be available for roads. Now I am not saying that government welfare programs are better than voluntary ones, I am merely pointing out that this argument completely misses the point.

‘…it’s not private citizens that did the work, it was several businesses’

- Who owns the businesses if not private citizens?

“It was democracy in action, not “free market” in action.”

- Which point in my post are you arguing?

“They demonstrated how an anarchist society would work. It had nothing to do with “markets”, or private ownership, or anything silly like that.”

- A true anarchist society can only function under private ownership of all means of production. Thus private ownership and anarchism are inextricably linked.
captbbq on April 14th, 2009 2:00 am

While few things in Korea woud appeal to anyone with libertarian economic ideals, expressway construction and managment would be the exception. The Korean Expressway Corporation(EX) is a for profit entity established by the Korea government and generated the equivalent of 22 million dollars for its investors in 2007. It is responsible for almost the entire expressway system in South Korea. While its investors are government entities at the moment, some of them (Korea Development Bank) are in the process of being privatized.

You can take a look at the balance sheet and everything:
http://www.freeway.co.kr/jsp/eng/index.jsp

They even have private competitors! Hyundai Developement Company looked at EX’s road between Daegu and Pusan and decide d they could cut a half hour off the transit time, so they build a new one and established a limited liability corporation known as “New Daegu Busan Expressway Co. Ltd.” to operate it. http://www.dbeway.co.kr/ (sorry that last one is in Korean)
Nima on April 14th, 2009 3:00 am

@captbbq: thanks for the great input. it is always good to crush false ideas with hard facts. the more striking the evidence, the more agitated the opponents will get. and the more ridiculous they will sound when trying to defend their shallow, ancient, and false theories.
captbbq on April 14th, 2009 5:58 am

Nima, my pleasure. Here’s a short paper comparing both the Japanese and Korean methods for highway development through public corporations: http://www.bnm.gov.my/microsites/rcicc/papers/s5.kimura.pdf

It’s pretty good proof of concept, despite both taking subsidies from the government, since most of the funding seems provided with internal revenue and loans were taken out when needed to fund various projects (as any private enterprise would do).

These Asian economies had to develop quickly, and didn’t have time for lumbering bureaucracies, its not surprising that they took a different approach to things than the west.

If any of this gives you an idea for a blog post don’t even bother with the hat tip, just go for it. I am happy enough to know this knowledge is being disseminated form a podium bigger than mine.
Pasadenahotrod on April 19th, 2009 11:09 am

Funny how folks can even complain when work is done by business for the public and private good.
If you look at the record of the roadbuilding companies hired by government you’ll see a whole lot of time and a bigger amount of money spent for roads that don’t last near as long as the original Interstate system has lasted.
Substandard materials, poor inspection oversight by engineers hired to supervise and verify, and just plain theft and fraud are common in the roadbuilding business.
Jeffrey Quick on April 20th, 2009 12:48 pm

Now, how long will it be before the citizen fix is declared “not good enough” and undone, with the people involved cited for vandalism to public property, or for some environmental infraction? I bet that will happen a lot sooner than 2 years.
ignatz on November 8th, 2011 8:17 pm

Looks like the Bush tax cut cost those businesses a lot more than they saved.
Michael Pelletier on November 8th, 2011 8:58 pm

Boston talk radio personality Michael Graham quipped that if you spent $10 billion on a tunnel in Chicago, you’d get the best $6 billion tunnel money could buy.
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nima on November 18th, 2011 9:58 am

I expect more and more private individuals to offer their services to do things that government bureaucrats can’t or simply won’t do. And I predict that union officials and other entitled conservatives will make complete scumbags of themselves as they ferociously oppose those people’s displays of voluntaryism in action.
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ian on November 29th, 2011 2:01 pm

With regards to the Korea Expressway corp.
They were created in the late 60s under the dictatorship of Park Jung Hee. 100% funded by the government. And Korea in the 60s was anything but the market working untouched by government hands.
Their investors now are something like 98% government organizations.
Hardly anything to write about in a blog that is supposed to be about the efficiency of the free market.