Cities, towns grapple with huge pothole problem

Cities and towns throughout Massachusetts are experiencing an unusually difficult pothole season.

In Brockton, for example, the mayor’s office received 45 calls within a few days of the March 18 launch of a dedicated “pothole hotline,” according to Bob Buckley, chief of staff for Mayor Bill Carpenter.

“They seem to be erupting everywhere,” said Brockton Public Works Commissioner Michael Thoreson.

While the freeze-and-thaw cycle in recent months is an obvious culprit, Thoreson said another factor is DPW staff reductions over the past decade. A decade ago, Brockton’s highway department consisted of roughly 50 employees. The department now has 28 positions, only 20 of which are full-time, Thoreson said.

“We’re reacting to stuff” due to short staff, Thoreson said. “We’re not able to do an extensive planning job.”

In Easthampton, which has more than 85 miles of city roads, work crews are expected to repave about eight miles a year, according to Public Works Director Joseph Pipczynski. But, because of limited resources, “We’re lucky if we do one-half mile to a mile in a year,” he said.

Cities and towns this season do have one thing in their favor. According to David Lane, president of the Massachusetts Highway Association, companies that produce “hot patch” asphalt – regarded as more durable than “cold patch” – have stayed open throughout the winter months.

“If there’s enough to sell, they can do that,” said Lane, who’s also the public works director in Danvers.

In Boston, where a smartphone application for reporting potholes and other nuisances was introduced four years ago, city crews by late March had filled roughly 9,000 potholes, far higher than in a typical year, according to Gabrielle Farrell, a press assistant in the office of Mayor Martin Walsh.

Town-by-town pothole data is scarce, but a Boston Globe reporter introduced a metric based on activity at a chain of local tire and auto service stations. Last winter, from December 2012 through March 2013, the owner reported that his tire shops performed 62 wheel repairs and straightening procedures and 31 wheel replacements. This year, according to the Globe, the totals for the four-month period were more than three times as high.