INDIANAPOLIS — It's mid-December, so that means all the roads should be fixed and it will be months before you have to see another pothole, right?
The Indianapolis Department of Public Works said not at all. And, in fact, you could start seeing potholes this weekend.
"So we had snow this Monday and Tuesday and we had this deep freeze, in the middle of the week," DPW director Dan Parker said. "This morning when I went out, it was 14 degrees. This weekend, its going to be 40. So that's a freeze and we're going to have a thaw at the end of the week. So folks should expect its going to start popping up here this weekend and next week."
Parker said the seven inches of snow that blanketed Indianapolis this week cost the city nearly a million dollars, with $700,000 spent on sale alone. The money used to clear streets came from the same pot used for DPW's efforts to fill potholes.
While the official start of winter is still days away, Parker said pothole season is starting up earlier.
"January and February are starting to become our biggest months for requests because of the up and down temperatures," Parker said.
In 2020, DPW will add another shift of workers to repair and clear roads. They will also roll out new equipment, such as new plow trucks, which will make it easier to clear more than 4,000 miles worth of roads in Marion County.
Parker said the key to fixing problematic roads is residents reporting those problems when they start out small in the winter instead of waiting until they're big problems in the spring.
"No one should assume that someone else has reported, because our crews are assigned based on the number of requests on a major street," Parker said. "So we prioritize major thoroughfares but they are prioritized based on the number of holes that have been reported. So if you see one, please report it."
DPW encourages all residents to download the Request Indy app to report potholes as soon as they see them. People can also call the Mayor's Action Center and report the problem over the phone.
