Boston Streets Not as Bad as You Might Think After This Winter
The city doesn’t see as many potholes as it did at this time last year.
Winter may be over but the work never ends for Boston’s Department of Public Works (DPW).
The department responsible for clearing an unprecedented amount of snow from Boston’s roads over the past few months is now in charge of fixing the potholes inflicted by the brutal weather.
Fortunately for city crews, a historically bad winter has not translated into much worse road conditions than usual. In fact, the city had filled almost twice as many potholes by this date in 2014 than they have in 2015, according to Interim Commissioner of Public Works Michael Dennehy.
The city filled 4,783 potholes between January 1 and March 23, 2015. That’s much lower than the whopping 9,085 workers had to fill last year during the same period.
“I don’t think we can touch that,’’ Dennehy said about the record number of potholes filled last year. “2015 snow and 2014 potholes should never happen again.’’
Boston roads were at their worst in 2014 because temperatures “see-sawed’’ between brutally cold and moderately warm days, Dennehy said, exactly the kind of temperature fluctuations that make asphalt contract and expand until it cracks.
But 2015’s pothole season hasn’t been a totally smooth ride. It’s already worse than 2013 (3,761 potholes filled by March 23) and Dennehy said 85 percent of DPW’s work has been done since February 11, which indicates the worst period has been shifted later than in previous years.
Craters will keep opening up until temperatures remain consistently above the freezing point and melting snow or other moisture exacerbates the situation, according to Dennehy.
“That rain on Wednesday and Thursday could create some havoc with us next week in terms of potholes,’’ he said.
Still, Dennehy said he’s not complaining.
“We’re welcoming potholes because that means the snow is going away,’’ Dennehy said. “With snow you don’t know what you’re getting, but with potholes you can know your workload…We’ll take potholes any day.’’
City officials shared a few other details about the resources Boston uses to fix roads. Numbers for asphalt cost, tons of asphalt used, and miles of road are estimates.
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