Well, here we go again.

The Star-Advertiser Marcel Honoré has a good follow-up to his earlier stories on the poor condition of local roads (“Report on roads left by wayside“).

Honoré reports on a 2008 federally funded study that reviewed the conditions of our roads and made a series of recommendations. It was done by a research center at Michigan State University and submitted to the state Department of Transportation.

Among other things, the report found DOT was at that point using an Excel spreadsheet to track pavement maintenance issues. “Outdated software,” the report called it.

And although the state says it has now purchased new software, it isn’t expected to go into service until sometime next year.

And, once again, the Ige’s administration’s actions appear to have been directly contrary to his pledges of increased transparency.

Honoré reported:

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser obtained the report from the Federal Highway Administration after requests to get it from state officials earlier this month went unanswered.

Does “unanswered” mean the department didn’t respond to the request, or did they say it could not be located? It sounds like the former, but is a bit ambiguous. And if they simply failed to respond at all to the document request, it certainly runs counter to Gov. Ige’s stated commitment to increased openness.

Honoré did turn up some other zingers.

For example, he quotes Larry Galehouse, director of research center that wrote the report:

In 2008 DOT staff on Oahu “told us that pavement preservation treatments had not been used on Interstate highways due to the perceived risks of trying treatments for the first time,” Galehouse’s report stated.

Ah. You can’t try anything “new,” even techniques that have been used for decades elsewhere, because they are new to us.

That’s “head in the sand” provincialism that ends up costing taxpayers a lot as it plays out across the state’s many departments and agencies.

In any case, this is an example of why a subscription to the Star-Advertiser is more than worthwhile. There’s more than enough good reporting to be found, whatever other shortcomings the newspaper may have. So find one of those discount offers and get yourselves over the paywall!