This is not my real opinion of Spokane streets so please nobody get upset. It is just something I saw on Facebook that I thought was funny.
Spokane’s Mayor David Condon, Public Works Director Scott Simmons, and new Street Director Gary Kaesemeyer today announced a plan to tackle the many weather-related potholes plaguing Spokane streets.
The plan includes several components, including:
- Additional two-person teams from the City’s Water and Wastewater departments are assisting Street crews with pothole repairs
- Testing several additional pothole filling materials to determine if they provide longer-lasting repairs
- Testing a concrete product and a polymer-based product used for bridge deck repair
- Working with Inland Asphalt to open a local asphalt plant early so crews have access to hot-mix asphalt, which provides a superior repair over the cold-mix asphalt crews have been using.
- Street crews have arranged to test a new piece of equipment next week for repairing potholes that allows for greater compaction and potentially a longer-lasting repair.
Additionally, the Street Department will identify sections of arterials with multiple potholes or significant deterioration that require a larger patch. That work will be prioritized based on the extent of the damage and where those sections are located. Some of these repairs will need to wait until the ground has dried out. Arterial streets with deterioration that could be hazardous to drivers will be evaluated for selected closures until more permanent repairs can be made.
The Street Department also will evaluate its grind and overlay repair schedule for the summer to see if some projects need to be reprioritized based on damage from the winter.
Street crews have been working to repair potholes as much as possible over the last couple of weeks. Crews remain on winter scheduling through March 15 so employees have been working on pothole repairs up to 20 hours a day on both day and night shifts.
Through Feb. 23, Street crews had filled 1,291 potholes, more than a third of the number that the department filled in all of 2016 and nearly 400 more since last week.
Thank god. I can barely use the streets anymore, they’re so awful. I’m sad to see all of the other motorists with flat tires and broken axles. I’m astounded by the recently-repaved roads with huge potholes. Apparently Spokane went with the cheap pavement, didn’t they? Not a good investment.
I saw the pothole repair truck working on A street a few weeks ago. They fixed both sides of A south of the roundabout, but only fixed the northbound lane north of the roundabout. They never came back to fill the huge potholes in the southbound lane. That boggled my mind that they wouldn’t at least take care of the huge ones in the other lane. They were 1 block away, in the other lane, when I saw them, and they just ignored it. It’s still there today… two weeks later.
I’m going to go report that one to the city now, because it’s huge.
That’s kind of random! I thought the directive was to hit as many major potholes as possible in an area before moving on. Hopefully reporting it will get it taken care of this time. I’ve seen them downtown a couple times lately but they REALLY need to hit Thor St. from 3rd Ave. up to about 10th. Holy cow the left southbound lane is pretty much unusable!
I reported the big pothole still on A, and it was gone by the next day. The others adjacent to it remain, but they’re not as deep, so I get it.
I heard about the Freya corridor, and specifically avoided it when I needed to go to the south hill and Google was really insisting I take it. Of course, the portion of 29th I hit had a huge line of pavement completely gone, but I’m sure it was still not as bad.
Hopefully repair crews will be able to get ahead of the weather soon!
I’m encouraged that they got to it the next day anyway. And the City is trying new materials, such as what they use for bridge decking, on potholes so I guess time will tell if it’s more durable but I’m optimistic!