Dunmore, PA – With numerous potholes appearing on area roadways following a colder-than-average winter, PennDOT’s District 4 region on Monday will launch an intensive pothole-repair effort on state-owned roads in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties.
With area asphalt plants expected to be open by April 6, the effort will run April 6-17 and aims to address at least 80 percent of the potholes reported on state roads in the region. The public is encouraged to report pothole locations on state roads by calling 1-800-FIX-ROAD with specific location details. Reported potholes remaining after April 17 will be addressed as soon as possible.
PennDOT’s plans for the “pothole blitz” include:
- Weather permitting, all 29 local PennDOT maintenance crews will be tasked with pothole repair with the exception of safety issues that require immediate attention.
- Each of the region’s 29 PennDOT maintenance crews will lay an estimated 6 tons of asphalt per day for a total of more than 1,700 tons of asphalt laid in the two-week period.
- Throughout the blitz, PennDOT will rent three mobile pothole patching machines and deploy 25 rollers, 10 “hot boxes” that trucks pull behind them to store asphalt, and over 100 dump trucks.
- PennDOT has also encouraged all private contractors and utility companies working on state roads to participate in the blitz and to fix the potholes within their limits of work during this time period.
To prioritize the repairs, PennDOT will follow its standard practice of addressing roadways based on traffic volume or safety impacts.
PennDOT crews across the state have been repairing potholes as weather permits since winter began loosening its grip, though dramatic temperature swings and available materials can affect how long repairs last. Because of Act 89, the state’s transportation funding plan, nearly 5,000 miles of state roads will see resurfacing and longer-term improvements this year statewide. Without Act 89, roughly 2,700 miles of roads would have seen mostly short-term repairs.
With Pennsylvania’s high levels of traffic, the fifth-largest state-maintained highway network in the country and drastic freeze-thaw cycle, the potholes that naturally occur on the state’s roadways are exacerbated by colder weather. To learn about how potholes form and how PennDOT addresses them, view the department’s “Pothole Patrol” video on its YouTube page.