I read the news today, oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall . . .
— John Lennon / Paul McCartney, “A Day in the Life”
As I write this, my car is in the tire shop, along with hundreds of other vehicles that have been damaged by the potholes/craters/chasms that have erupted throughout the city in the past few weeks. I thought of the lovely song “A Day in the Life” by the Beatles, and changed the place from Blackburn to Indianapolis, and Albert Hall to Lucas Oil Stadium (it doesn’t have the same ring to it, unfortunately). And four thousand seems like a low-ball estimate of the number of potholes in the city.
Indianapolis has seen severe deterioration of roads this winter due to rapid and repeated fluctuation of temperatures. These weather conditions have caused a surge in pothole service requests from residents since January 1, 2018. Since the beginning of the year, DPW has received more than 12,000 service requests for pothole repairs. Potholes are caused by winter’s freeze and thaw cycles. This year has been particularly bad, with temperatures plunging for several days, then going well above freezing the next.
Recently, Mayor Joe Hogsett issued an Emergency Declaration to allow the Indianapolis Department of Public Works (DPW) to begin aggressively addressing the city’s deteriorating roadways and introduced a proposal to the City-County Council that would direct an additional $14 million to road repairs. These immediate repairs go beyond simply filling pot holes, and will include additional road resurfacing projects and the hiring of contractors to begin “strip patching” some of the worst segments of city roadways.
On top of the nearly $88 million budgeted for road infrastructure projects this year, the mayor also announced his intention to submit a proposal to the City-County Council that would appropriate all dollars in the Rainy Day Fund not currently earmarked for road funding toward targeting Indianapolis roadways ravaged by this year’s winter weather. The City-County Council voted on the appropriation Feb. 28.
The Emergency Declaration will allow DPW to go beyond the normal operational strength by putting multiple contractors out on roads to immediately begin strip patching the most crumbled, damaged segments of city streets. Strip patching is a process that removes significant sections of poor pavement, replacing the area with a permanent smooth asphalt patch. Strip-patching requires extra time to coordinate with utility lines under the street, as the process removes and replaces pavement up to 9 inches in depth. Strip patching will continue through April.
In addition, through Saturday, March 3rd, DPW will order a full call-out of 20 pothole crews and four contractor pothole-patching crews to help address the current road conditions.
The city is only responsible for city-owned streets; highway potholes should be reported to INDOT at www.in.gov/indot/ and report a concern.
In the meantime, continue to report potholes to the Mayor’s Action Center at 317-327-4622, or visit them online at maps.indy.gov/RequestIndy/
