INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Department of Public Works (DPW) recently highlighted locations in the first phase of its strip-patching program for 2020. DPW plans to address streets across Indianapolis with the strip-patching technique as soon as asphalt plants are able to open and supply street crews, as soon as the weather warms.
Strip-patching is a more permanent solution to deteriorating roadways than standard pothole filling. When warmer weather allows hot-mix asphalt plants to open for the construction season, specialized equipment is used to mill partial or entire lanes of roadway before laying down a new surface, up to four inches deep. While historically opened in March or April, DPW has worked with asphalt plants to open earlier in recent years to supply street crews with the material they need for more substantive maintenance.
Locally, the first locations to be strip-patched include: 21st St, Wellesley Blvd to Post Rd.; Shadeland Ave, 21st St to Western Select Dr.; Emerson Ave, English Ave to Washington St.; Allisonville Rd, 62nd St to 71st St.; and Southport Rd, US 31 to Shelby St.
DPW will work from a finalized list of strip-patching locations, based on recommendations from DPW’s Operations and Engineering divisions using pavement data to target the most deteriorated streets. DPW will announce further street segments to be addressed with strip-patching as the first round of locations nears completion.
Strip-patching locations will be addressed both by contractors and by DPW’s newly created, in-house Street Maintenance Team. In 2019, its inaugural year, this new DPW team of 36 crew members completed 64 intensive strip-patching projects.
Pothole-filling crews (up to 90 members daily) have also been working each day this week to service pothole requests from residents across Indianapolis, filling nearly 10,000 potholes with about 240 tons of cold-mix asphalt.
To report a pothole on Indianapolis local streets, call the Mayor’s Action Center at 317-327-4622; or,‘Create A New Request’ via the online portal RequestIndy by navigating to maps.indy.gov/RequestIndy/ or by downloading the RequestIndy app.