Potholes Put Dent in City Coffers
Potholes jar not only tires but transportation departments trying to fix roads.
March 12, 2010 -- Drivers are battling an epidemic of teeth-rattling potholes, jarring not only wheels and tires but also transportation departments trying to pay for road fixes.
"The roads are so bad, you have to wear a mouthpiece," says David Alston, 50, a school bus driver in Iselin, N.J..
Pothole patching crews are making repairs earlier this year after an unusually severe winter of heavy snowstorms followed by freezing temperatures, then a quick warm-up:
• Wichita has patched 13,000 potholes in the first two months of the year, three times the 4,000 it repaired in the same period last year, says public works director Chris Carrier.
• Washington, D.C., kicked off its second-annual Potholepalooza, a month-long campaign to fix potholes, a week earlier than planned. Since it began last Friday, the city has received 570 repair requests by phone, e-mail, text message or tweets. The city has filled 1,300 potholes so far, says Department of Transportation spokeswoman Karyn LeBlanc.
• The Iowa Transportation Commission voted Tuesday to add $12 million to its $18 million maintenance budget to fix roads decimated by potholes. The extra funding is coming from savings in other road projects. "We don't count the potholes. It's just out of control," says Dena Gray-Fisher, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation.
• Sioux Falls, S.D., Mayor Dave Munson has been scouting city streets and finding more potholes than he's seen in years. In January and February, the city went through 256 tons of repair material, almost double the 130 tons it used in the same months last year. "This year is so abnormal," he says.
• The extra cost is nicking already tight budgets. Medford, Mass., has spent almost double its $500,000 snow and ice budget since Christmas to repair potholes.
Potholes are good news for car repair shops. Somerset Tire Service in East Meadow, N.Y., is seeing almost triple the usual number of customers coming in with blown tires, bent rims and other damage, says assistant manager Steven Walchak.
The pothole problem is unlikely to improve unless more money is spent to maintain roads, says Peter King, executive director of the American Public Works Association. "What we are seeing is the result of deferring maintenance over time," King says. "Next year it will be worse, and two years from now even worse."
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