Effort to repair potholes slowed by wet weather

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - DeKalb County is wrapping up this month's Pothole Palooza campaign. Itsgoal was to beat last year's record and fill more than 1,000 pot holes. Unfortunately, the Aprilshowers have put a bit of a dent in the plan.

As of April 29th, the county has filled 586 pot holes since April 1st, and more than 1,300 this year.Even though April is ending, Pothole Palooza isn't in the books yet. The county will extend thecampaign into May to help make up for the April showers.

Massive pot holes can do a number on your car's alignment, even flatten a tire.

That's one reason DeKalb County's Roads and Drainage crews have been taking advantage ofPothole Palooza.

"When we get the first sunshine, which is normally in April, we want to put additional forces outthere and try to catch up on repairs that we couldn't do in the winter and patch those potholes,"Peggy Allen, with DeKalb County Roads and Drainage says.

And winter wasn't exactly friendly toarea roads. "The rain, the ice, the cold,the freezing and the thawing of theroads...if there's any little crack in theroad and water gets in then freezes,thaws, expands and contracts, andcreates those pot holes," Allen explains.

This year, the county hoped to fill morethan 1,000 pot holes in April, but a rainymonth has slowed down its progress."The rain has just been devastating tous, but it hasn't stopped our spirit and every inch of sunshine that we get, we're out there patchingpotholes," she adds.

They know how annoying these pesky potholes can be. "If you have to pass over a pothole every dayit's just uncomfortable and it's unfair. What we want to do is get those potholes filled because notonly are they a nuisance to driving, but they're tearing up our roads," Allen says.

With asphalt around $60 per ton, it's much cheaper to patch a roadway than it is to repave the wholething. "We want to keep these roads in good repair as long as possible. If we patch a pothole today,we'll save money later as far as road resurfacing," explains Allen.

In 2014, DeKalb County worked to repair 3,500 potholes. Crews will still be out in May andthroughout the summer, but not quite as many.

If you have a pothole you want to report, you can contact Roads and Drainage at (404) 297-3840.

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/28939727/effort-to-repair-potholes-slowed-by-wet-weather