As Winter Continues, Potholes Plague New York City
NEW YORK (CBS 2/1010 WINS) -- From Madison Avenue in Midtown to Northern Boulevard in Queens and the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, potholes are plaguing New York City.
Drivers are expected to be dodging the potholes, created by freeze-thaw cycles and plows scraping streets down to the bare pavement, for the months to come.
The bumps in the roads will inevitably cause some flat tires. One taxi driver who spoke with CBS 2's Tony Aiello Friday said he expected to face at least two or three pothole flats this winter.
"They need to fix that man. [It gets] very, very expensive," he said.
One pothole at Madison Avenue and 49th Street was measured to be six and a half inches deep.
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"That they could actually leave something like that without even putting a cone in the way," one bewildered driver said, "you could break an axle on a hole like that."
A DOT supervisor eventually marked the danger and arranged for Con-Ed to fill the pothole.
Glenn Schuck of 1010 WINS spoke with one man trying to get by a huge pothole on West 31st Street in his van. He said he was able to avoid it, but has not been as lucky other times this winter.
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1010 WINS Reporter Glenn Schuck reports on the rising number of potholes.
"If you see the front of my car, the front underneath the bumpers [is] all messed up. It's all cracked off," he said.
Deputy DOT Commissioner Galileo Orlando said the city has 40 crews to fill potholes - and they have been very busy.
"We ask everybody to be patient. We're improving the roadways for travel in general," Orlando said.
The DOT has already plugged about 128,000 potholes since July and almost 40,000 in January.
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