AASHTO Journal, 31 May 2013
The traveling public in Washington, D.C. and the District Department of Transportation together identified and filled almost 4,000 potholes around the city during its fifth annual Potholepalooza campaign, which ran from April 22 through May 22.
“I’d like to thank the hard-working men and women at DDOT for working tirelessly to fill almost 1,500 more potholes than we filled during last year’s campaign,” said DDOT Director Terry Bellamy in a statement. “I’d also like to thank the public for continuing to support this campaign by notifying us about potholes throughout the city.”
DDOT reports that it received 849 requests for pothole repairs while filling 3,899 potholes this year. These numbers reflect a major jump from last year, when 453 requests were made prompting DDOT to fill 2,443 potholes. For this year’s campaign, DDOT officials say they filled an average of 169 potholes per day around the District.
DDOT first launched Potholepalooza in 2009, filling almost 25,000 potholes to date. Throughout the month-long campaign, DDOT relies on the public to contact the department with specific locations of troublesome potholes. The department adds extra crews to tackle these repairs, thereby reducing the average response time by a full day (from the typical 72 hours to 48 hours during Potholepalooza).
While the 2013 Potholepalooza campaign is complete, DDOT encourages the public to continue to call in potholes that need repair by visiting 311.dc.gov, dialing 311 for the Mayor’s Call Center, sending a tweet to DDOT’s Twitter account, or by using the DC311 smartphone application.
