Arlington Plugs Potholes At Record Pace
ARLINGTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - The city of Arlington is plugging potholes at a record pace, using "pothole-dedicated trucks" to fix them.
It took less than half an hour for crews to patch up one pothole Friday. They repair as many as 10 or more a day.
When the unmistakable orange and white truck rolls into city streets, crews get to work. They dig up the pothole and fill it with fresh asphalt.
"Our public works division and the city as a whole are very well-trained to see something, report it quickly and act on it. We want road preservation. It's all about safety of the motorists," said Erik Ferner, operations supervisor for Arlington.
Ferner said two crews go out every day to repair potholes. If a resident calls to report one, the city will fix it within three days.
"Not only do we have the Arlington app, we also work with Waze and "SeeClickFix" to monitor the potholes that are entered into that system, and we'll enter it into our work orders," said Ferner.
Every August, the city also enlists a high-tech van to inspect street conditions.
"We're able to prioritize streets and identify the best means of repair, whether it should be a total rebuild through a contractor or if it should be done in-house with our own crews," said Leah Jackson, asset systems analyst for the city.
The van uses cameras, lasers and monitors to survey the streets. It's currently surveying 4,000 segments of roadway in south Arlington.
"It's an incredibly efficient process. They're able to get all of the data for a third of the city at a time, within a couple of weeks," said Jackson.
The Arlington mayor said about nine percent of the streets are in bad shape, which is about half the average of cities at comparable size.
According to the city, crews have repaired over 7,500 potholes and most of them have been repaired within the three-day request.