Spring time means on thing in Florida: Potholes!
As we enter spring here in Florida, we can expect to see more potholes as the warmer weather conditions start heating up the asphalt, causing it to expand during the day. Then, the cooler temperatures at night cause it to contract.
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City leaders in St. Petersburg say they want to hear your complaints about potholes so they can work to fix them.
They interact with citizens daily using their See Click Fix website, and we're told that one of the top complaints are the potholes.
ABC Action News is told that they are seeing an increase in reports because it's pothole season, and they're having more residents using SCF.
In the past five months, the city has received nearly 400 pothole work orders, and they've repaired all but 63 of them.
You can go to See Click Fix here.
Other cities are working to fill as many as they can in one week. We reached out to various cities by email, and here are the responses we received:
CLEARWATER:
They tell us that approximately 12 potholes are filled per week. That means city leaders there estimate they fill around 600 – 700 per year.
NEW PORT RICHEY:
"The City has a Pavement Management Plan that calls out the paving of all City Street within 20 years. To satisfy this directive the Public Works Department has been tasked with implementation of annual street paving projects. As a result, our road network has minimal pothole repairs. Typical if a pothole is called in we will have a maintenance person respond and apply what we call cold patch which is just asphalt in a plastic bag. Once we have a list large enough to fill a two (2) ton order we will send a dump truck driver over to the asphalt plant to get a load of hot asphalt. A two (2) man crew is assigned to prep the hole and make the permanent repair in addition to the driver."
SARASOTA:
"The City’s Public Works department has one crew and truck assigned to potholes, and we fill them as soon as they are notified. In the past six months, we have completed 110 service requests for potholes."
Service requests can be filed on the City’s website, here.
ZEPHYRHILLS:
"We haven’t experienced a lot of complaints as far as pot holes go. We have one crew to make street repairs / patch pot holes. Our level of service is to repair a pothole the same day (if scheduling allows). Since January 1, 2019, we’ve received 11 pothole complaints, all complaints have been resolved."
