“They don’t discriminate - they’re on every road we’ve got,” Michael Thompson, superintendent of New Britain Public Works said.
As sure as spring is set to come, so too is a familiar battle in New Britain.
“We fill them and then two days later they’re out again,” Thompson said.
This year the Hardware City is bringing out the big tools even more to fight potholes.
“With all of the groundwater that’s in the ground it’s making the road move more fluctuation more potholes and we usually get,” Thompson said.
Thompson says the freeze/thaw pattern has caused more potholes to pop up. The city is now more aware of the problem spots after launching its See-Click-Fix App, repairing nearly 500 potholes since launching the app last April.
“The volume of responses that we are addressing is definitely more than we’ve ever had in the past,” New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart said.
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Stewart says while the pothole requests are welcome, they’ve come with a cost.
“We are looking at by the end of this year having to transfer some more money to purchase more asphalt to take care of all the complaints,” Stewart said.
“I was like oh no that’s a flat tire right there,” Brandon Higley-Blair said.
Higley-Blair has felt the hard hits but knowing public works crews are up for the battle means he can hit the road with less potholes to avoid.
“There’s definitely more they could do but it’s good to see them out there doing it,” Higley-Blair said.
The city says its mostly using a cold patch right now that only temporarily fixes the potholes. There is one crew that drives daily down to New Haven to get a hot asphalt mixture. The city is expected to use a more permanent asphalt mixture by April once Tilcon’s plant re-opens.
