DOT gearing up to deal with potholes

wtvd

By ABC11

Friday, February 5, 2010

WAKE COUNTY "We should be anticipating potholes as all this gets cleared off," said Wally Bowman with the North Carolina DOT. "So we'll have crews ready to respond to those potholes."

Bowman manages the DOT unit that is responsible for Wake County.

The two biggest municipalities in the county Raleigh and Cary have a 24-hour pothole policy - report a pothole and they will try to patch it within one day.

"Terrific, I've got a few I can tell them about," Raleigh resident Peggy Joyner said.

Joyner not only knows what to expect once snow and ice melts, she knows why pavement crumbles.

"You get a crack in it, water gets in it, it freezes, the water expands, the concrete cracks, cars drive over it, concrete pops up," Joyner said. "So, especially after the freeze/thaw cycles we've had you can just watch them getting bigger every day."

Joyner says she fears budget cuts will mean a slower response by road crews.

Raleigh and Cary say cuts haven't affected their pothole plan, but for the state it's a different story.

In the past, Raleigh would fix potholes in the city limits, but on a state maintained road and bill the state, but because of budget cuts the state no longer reimburses cities and towns.

So Raleigh and Cary no longer patch state roads.