Nassau County Promises New Approach To Pothole Plague
SEA CLIFF, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - They're just about everywhere: Potholes pocking our roadways.
Nassau County officials say they filled more than 60,000 potholes last year.
This year, they're taking a new approach.
The maddening pothole cycle frays drivers' nerves: Damage, repair, repeat.
"It's almost like you're dodging garbage cans to try to miss the potholes," one driver told CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff.
"I have a cracked axle on the right hand side of my car," said another.
"When I go over those potholes, my coffee is jumping out of my cup holder," said a third.
The owner of Conti Auto Body in Syosset sees a daily parade of fed up drivers.
"So many cars damaged with wheels, suspensions, all the new cars have aluminum, so easy to bend now," said owner Allie Gurses.
Pothole patrol also costs municipalities dearly, and the fixes don't last very long. They crumble again in a matter of months.
So now, Nassau has a new strategy: Instead of only a Band-Aid patch for individual potholes, they are resurfacing larger sections of roadways, so that the fix sticks longer. A pilot program they rolled out last year will now pick up speed.
"To continually have our guys do potholes its expensive and a waste and manpower. If we cut and patch a larger section we won't have to deal with that road until we resurface it a year or two later," said Nassau County Commissioner of Public Works Ken Arnold.
This year, the road repaving budget will triple. One hundred and seventy five lane miles will be repaved, a 130 percent increase since 2017.
County Executive Laura Curran says she inherited from previous administrations a network of neglect.
"It was a mess, it was years of neglect, the previous administration neglected repaving," Curran said.
For a long term fix, the county will soon receive the results of a state survey that actually grades each and every county road. The results will help then prioritize which ones to tackle first. The report is due out in a month.
