50 NYC Crews Hit Streets To Tackle Potholes

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York City launched a pothole blitz Sunday as 50 crews hit the streets to patch up craters.

The city Department of Transportation is hitting all five boroughs this week as workers try to repair as many potholes as they can, 1010 WINS' Derricke Dennis reported.

Crews have already repaired nearly 100,000 potholes since December.

One driver on Sunday morning was at a Shell gas station at East 96th Street and FDR Drive fixing a flat tire from a pothole.

"It just keeps getting worse and worse," he said. "It's like the fourth time this week that I get the flat tire."

A gas station attendant at East 23rd Street and FDR Drive said drivers have been parading through with flat tires in recent weeks.

"We see a lot of people come in here with damaged cars talking about potholes," he said.

According to AAA, potholes cost drivers as much as $700 in repairs each year, CBS2's Ilana Gold reported.

And the damage can be serious.

"The lady, she broke the axel of the car," the gas station attendant described. "She nearly had an accident."

"It's a hazard. God forbid there's an incident that can occur," said Anthony Marando.

Marando damaged the rims on his car Sunday morning after hitting a pothole on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

"Both of my rims cracked. (You have to be frustrated.) It is extremely frustrating, I mean, just the cost alone," he said.

Mechanics at Repairs On Wheels in Borough Park, Brooklyn can barely keep up with the customers' blowouts and banged up rims.

"(How busy are you on a given day?) I would say anywhere between 50 and 100 rims a day," said Alex Faynkikh, with Repairs On Wheels.

AAA said keeping the proper tire pressure can help minimize damage if you hit a pothole.

The DOT has launched a Tumblr blog, The Daily Pothole, where it chronicles the work being done.