And on each street there are new potholes E-I-E-I-Oh

by | Jan 7, 2014 | Newton | 14 comments

It’s a great time to own an alignment or tire business and here’s why…

14 Comments

  1. Jerry Reilly
    Jerry Reilly on January 7, 2014 at 9:21 am

    Loved that video Greg. Now I understand why the wheel just came off my car 😉

    I’m guessing that yesterday-today-tomorrow’s freeze-thaw cycle will be great fodder for this years crop of gaping potholes.

  2. Jerry Reilly
    Jerry Reilly on January 7, 2014 at 12:30 pm

    From the Newton Patch.com:
    “If you do notice any large potholes please contact 617-796-1000 or you can report it online,” Police wrote.

    Potholes can be reported on the City of Newton’s 311 page (click here to access). Topics are listed alphabetically, so potholes are a ways down the list.

  3. Max Goldsmith
    Max Goldsmith on January 7, 2014 at 1:14 pm

    If you’ve got the mobile 311 app on your smartphone you can snap a picture of the crater and the geo-locator fills in the address. Then you’ll get the robo-response that the pothole will be filled within 2 business days. We reported multiple potholes on Waverley Ave last Wednesday. I’m going to assume that the storm days of Thursday and Friday were not business days so our expectation is that they will be filled this afternoon.

    Then, on Saturday I reported a huge pothole on Washington Street near the Lincoln Baptist Church in West Newton. Not yet filled but last night at least it was covered by a large orange barrel.

  4. nathan phillips
    nathan phillips on January 7, 2014 at 4:58 pm

    I think potholes are seeded more commonly in Newton by asphalt patches associated with underground utility work.

  5. Jerry Reilly
    Jerry Reilly on January 9, 2014 at 9:08 am

    While out for a walk this morning I stumbled on this city road patching machinery. The crew was out with a load of hot asphalt cooking away in the back, trying to keep up with the pot holes that are sprouting like mushrooms around the city.

  6. Greg Reibman
    Greg Reibman on January 9, 2014 at 10:32 am

    @Max: Great information, thanks.

    BTW, I drove down the street where the mayor lives today and it’s in awful shape. If anyone was wondering if Mayor Warren (and his neighbors) get any preferential treatment from the DPW Department, I can tell you that’s clearly not the case.

  7. Max Goldsmith
    Max Goldsmith on January 9, 2014 at 11:30 am

    The thing about 311 is not only identifying situations, but also managing expectations. Of the two items I mentioned above (both responded to immediately with the “2 business days” expectation) I did receive a followup email regarding the West Newton pothole to the effect that my report was a duplicate and was therefore closed. The pothole in question was indeed filled as of last night – 3 business days. Expectation not met, but close.

    The potholes on Waverley Ave remain unattended to, now going on 6 business days (or 4, if Thursday and Friday last week being storm days don’t count). Expectation not met.

    Is there a metric within the 311 framework that measures timeliness of completion? That might be useful to those who set the expectations as well as those who expect them.

  8. Doug Haslam
    Doug Haslam on January 9, 2014 at 12:10 pm

    Walking home from the YMCA this morning, noticed the patching crews out to fix up Newton Corner. Sad, I was getting to know some of those potholes.

  9. mgwa
    mgwa on January 9, 2014 at 12:18 pm

    My guess is it’s taking longer than usual to fix potholes because the deep freeze/thaw cycle is creating them faster and more prolifically than usual so DPW just can’t keep up. While it would be great if they updated the 311 webpage to that effect, it’s unlikely DPW has access to the web-management end of things.

  10. Ted Hess-Mahan
    Ted Hess-Mahan on January 9, 2014 at 1:47 pm

    There are a lot of roadway problems caused or related to the extreme cold that DPW is attending to. It took DPW several days to get a crew out to fix a broken water line on Washington Street in West Newton across from Burke & Blackington’s funeral home. Meanwhile, the homeowners could not get their cars in or out of their driveways for three days because of all of the ice that had built up.

  11. Hoss
    Hoss on January 9, 2014 at 3:13 pm

    I’m pretty sure the reason for a greater number of potholes is the City has a plan to upgrade the water mains and sewers. That work has put on hold any street pavings until the upgrades are completed. I think I read that in one of the capital plan docs. If that’s right, the pothole patches only hold for so long.

  12. Steven Feinstein
    Steven Feinstein on January 10, 2014 at 1:51 pm

    Here is a fun and informative read on this topic from several years back in Boston Magazine on the general topic of potholes in the Boston area. http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2006/05/holey-terrors/ As a former Boston-Atlanta commuter, the stark contrast in road quality between the two cities always made me wonder why things are so bad here and so good there.

  13. Max Goldsmith
    Max Goldsmith on January 10, 2014 at 2:12 pm

    The thing about expectations? I got an email this morning that my pothole work was “completed” today. A look out my window showed no such thing. The whole two block stretch of Waverley between Washington and Tremont is still untouched, so I replied to the email and attached a video of the street. Chris Tracy, the Citizen Assistance Officer, wrote back promptly to report that they “were recently made aware of the response problems with our Web QA system. This is something we are actively meeting on and addressing. I will follow up on this pothole and I will reach out to you when we make the needed changes to the Web QA response system.”

  14. Max Goldsmith
    Max Goldsmith on January 10, 2014 at 2:34 pm

    @Steven Feinstein – great article. 8 years later and not much has changed.