With all this talk of repeal and replace, at what point does the city decide to replace asphalt rather than repair with streaks of tar in the pattern of an Afghan? See my attached photo of the Montview Parkway. – Kristina Bruton

Allow Action Line to make a blanket statement: The woebegone pavement bears a clear resemblance to a crocheted throw.

Could this mean there’s an Afghan cover-up in the city’s Streets Department?

Not likely, because that would be a yarn. And no one’s pulling the wool over anyone’s eyes.

However, there is an interesting story that Action Line can knit together.

(Harrumph.)

There are three different types of pavement cracks, according to our good friend Mike Somsen, the city’s superintendent of streets.

Mike puts the super in superintendent, by the way.

Longitudinal or horizontal cracks are what you see most frequently. They’re the longer fissures up and down or spanning across the street.

Then there’s block cracking in which cracks form around a large slab of asphalt.

“Both of those are the good kinds of cracks because we can maintain them a lot easier and repair them by applying rubberized asphalt crack sealer,” Mike said.

Of course, all repairs are performed by a crack team from the Streets Department.

(Harrumph again.)

Then there are pesky “alligator cracks,” the worst type of street damage formed by a mosaic of small breaks.

“Anytime you have alligator cracks, it’s the sign of road-base failure and it needs to be replaced,” Mike said.

Alligator cracks look like the skin of the tropical swamp-dwelling reptile.

Or, for some non-swamp-dwelling mountain folks, the cracks resemble the pattern of an Afghan.

But Action Line glanced at the city’s failing infrastructure and saw neither alligators or Afghans.

Instead, Action Line saw a Jackson Pollack painting.

Mrs. Action Line was called in for a consultation. After all, she’s well-versed in mid-century art and design.

Pollack was the guy who dripped and drizzled paint, “but that’s definitely not a Pollack,” Mrs. Action Line said artfully.

“It’s more like a Jean Dubuffet or a Franz Kline. I’d say Kline, judging by the composition and bold strokes.”

Franz Kline was a famous American painter known for his brushstrokes of black paint across massive canvases. His works are classified as “abstract expressionism.”

A side-by-side comparison shows an uncanny resemblance – and a massive opportunity for Durango’s underfunded public art program.

Not only is abstract expressionism now on virtually every city block, but black strokes of sealer could be worth a fortune.

Let’s do some abstract math.

There are 380 lane-miles of asphalt in Durango, according to the streets department. That’s about 2 million lane-feet of pavement.

Then let’s assume 5 percent of our roads feature black strokes of crack sealer. That’s the equivalent of 100,000 lane-feet of abstract expressionism.

Now, consider that a 10-foot-wide Kline painting sold for $36 million a couple years ago. That’s $3.6 million per linear foot.

So Durango’s 100,000 feet of black streaked pavement should be worth $360 billion, a far cry from the paltry but much-ballyhooed $1 million the city says its current portfolio is worth.

What does the Public Art Commission think of this incredible windfall?

Chairwoman Christie Scott, who is also the executive director of the Durango Arts Center, was quite surprised and called the $360 billion estimate “intriguing.”

We always knew that Durango’s roads are paved with gold.

Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can ask for anonymity if you petition the city to add fluoride to the asphalt to prevent potholes.