Today we ran a story about a smart phone application that will let residents tell city councilor Bonner Gaylord about problem places in the city. The city's public works department wanted to pass on that anyone can report graffiti by emailing graffiti@raleighnc.gov or potholes by contacting pothole@raleighnc.gov.
And Gaylord said the quickest way to get to his application to download is to go to click on his campaign website.
Now, go find those potholes!
View Triangle potholes, 2010 edition in a larger map
Some news updates after this morning's pothole roundup (see N&O story with reader comments and where-to-report-pothole phone numbers):
- The city of Durham asks Bull City residents to report potholes, and explains here what it's doing to fix them.
- NCDOT also wants to hear about potholes, and explains how it patches holes with "cold mix" asphalt until the hot stuff is available.
Meanwhile, NCDOT cites pothole-safety tips from the AAA motor club: ... [MORE]
View Triangle potholes, 2010 edition in a larger map
Suddenly, we have a pothole epidemic.
Have you hit a bad one? Here's what you should do about it:
1) Share your pothole story. E-mail me.
2) Report your pothole to city and NCDOT road crews so they can fix it. They'll thank you for your call. See pothole call-it-in info below.
3) Pinpoint your pothole on our collaborative Google map, "Triangle Potholes, 2010 Edition." Click the map link or go here for instructions. Be sure to include details in your description.
CALL IT IN:
Here's how to call or e-mail your pothole problem to the people we pay to fix it. ... [MORE]
View Triangle potholes, 2010 edition in a larger map
A new crop of potholes is popping up all over after the recent spell of snow, ice and freezing weather.
Don't just curse the potholes, call 'em in. And while you're at it, pinpoint your pothole on our collaborative Google map. Instructions are below.
The 2009 pothole map was viewed 20,000 times last winter and spring. Folks from all over the world used it to plot pesky potholes from Michigan to Germany.
Most of these have been repaired in the past year, so this week I wiped it clean (except for one near my house, which has sentimental value). The 2010 edition of our Triangle pothole map is waiting for your contribution.
TO MAP YOUR POTHOLE: ... [MORE]
UPDATE: Police spokesman Jim Sughrue said all the small streets surrounding Broughton will be closed. He said he didn't know Obama's specific route.
At the N&O, the parking lots on McDowell Street have been closed by the police, which seems to indicate the presidential motorcade will come this way.
Carl Dawson, Raleigh’s public works director, says Tuesday’s Road Worrier column about potholes may have given local residents the wrong idea about city efforts to keep streets smooth and in good repair.
The column quoted Dawson as saying that maintenance has been deferred on some major streets, leaving them vulnerable to winter rain that seeps into cracks, freezes and “pops out the pavement.”
He said by e-mail today that he was speaking there about major streets such as Wade and Glenwood avenues, both with heavy pothole problems this winter, that are maintained by the state Department of Transportation -- not by the city. ... [MORE]
Triangle roads have plenty of potholes. You can find potholes in Virginia, too — and on a U.S. Army base in Germany — if you join the 12,000 people who have glimpsed our interactive pothole map.
View Larger Map
Add or update your pothole here. Log in to your Google or gmail account and give it a try.
It's been a bad winter. I'm writing about this next week, so I'd like to hear about your pothole encounter. Did it hurt you or your car? Did you report it? Did it get fixed?
Please let me know. Don't forget your name and your weekday, daytime contact info. Thanks.
Yes, they're getting worse. Take Wade Avenue. (Better yet, take an alternate route.)
View Larger Map Don't just curse the potholes, call 'em in. And while you're at it, pinpoint your pothole on our collaborative Google map, which has been viewed nearly 10,000 times but is marked with only two dozen potholes so far.
Did your pothole get fixed? Let me know.
Here's how to call or e-mail your pothole problem to the people we pay to fix it:
City and state road crews split the job of pothole patching. If you happen to contact the wrong folks, they’ll relay your message to the right place.
RALEIGH: Call city street maintenance at 831-6446 or e-mail pothole@ci.raleigh.nc.us.
CARY: Call town public works and utilities at 469-4090 or e-mail potholes@townofcary.org
DURHAM: Call the city pothole hotline at 560-1177 or click the online request form at www.durhamnc.gov/departments/onecall/.
CHAPEL HILL: Call town public works at 968-2796 or send e-mail to gling@townofchapelhill.org
FOR RURAL AND OTHER STATE-MAINTAINED ROADS: Call state Department of Transportation customer service: 1-877-368-4968.
Or contact the DOT maintenance office in your county. Online at www.ncdot.org/contact/ go to “Road Report” and click the drop-down menu to choose your county. You’ll get an online form for reporting your pothole problem.
An NCDOT crew repaired this pothole on Damascus Church Road in Orange County on 1/29/9.
That was fast work. I reported a deep, dangerous pothole about a mile from my home last weekend to the NCDOT engineers responsible for road maintenance in Orange County.
(I also posted a 1/25/9 photo with this blog post and on this collaborative map of bad Triangle potholes, which now shows about a dozen potholes plotted by Crosstown Traffic readers.)
A maintenance crew was dispatched Monday 1/26 to make a temporary cold asphalt patch -- but by the end of the day Tuesday the patch had been washed out!
Oh well, I thought. Maybe when warm weather returns and NCDOT has access to hot-mix asphalt (the real stuff, generally not available in cold weather) and time and money to devote to this little road.
Instead ... [MORE]
There's a scary one not far from my house. After this past week's snow and ice, this baby is big enough to swallow a Honda Insight or a large house pet. [1/28/9: see update below.]
View Larger Map I've marked it on this collaborative map. Why don't you open up the map and mark the locations of your pet pothole, too? If you want to add a pothole, you must have a (free) Google (Gmail etc) account.
While you're looking at the map, log into your Google account, and click the Edit button next to the map. Then drag the map to the locale of your pothole.
Click a placemark icon in the top left corner, drag it to your pothole spot, and drop it. Replace "Placemark x" label with streetname. Type in the descriptive details. Click Done, and your pothole has been added to the map.
If you can't mark it on the map, let me know in a comment below where your bad pothole is.
Mine is on Damascus Church Road in southern Orange County, at a dip in the road that always has standing water after a rainfall. Hence its perennial potholiness.
[Wed 1/28/9: After last week's snow, this became a gaping hole maybe 16 inches wide, 5 inches deep and a few feet long. This photo was shot Sunday.
[On Monday, NCDOT's Orange County maintenance crew patched this big hole in response my e-mail request. But by Tuesday, the patch had failed! The hole had returned!
[Wednesdy morning, this part of the road was covered in standing water.]
Call it in
City and state road crews split the job of pothole patching. If you happen to contact the wrong folks, they’ll relay your message to the right place. ... [MORE]
