One Astoria politician is looking to make the headache of potholes go away faster.
Councilmember Costa Constantinides recently announced he had introduced a bill into the City Council that would require potholes to be filled within five days or less.
“It will give peace of mind to those that call 3-1-1 that potholes will be repaired within a five day time frame demonstrating our responsiveness to their all,” Constantinides said. “Department of Transportation (DOT) data shows that we have been able to fill potholes effectively despite the harsh winter. [The bill] would codify good practice and set our expectations high for years to come.”
Constantinides’ legislation was introduced after Mayor Bill de Blasio and the DOT announced that they have made pothole repairs a top priority this year. De Blasio’s plan includes pothole blitzes, targeted repaving, road-surface material enhancements, and enhanced routing and tracking operations.
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New York City's infrastructure is in a sorry state.
http://nycfuture.org/research/publications/caution-ahead
This report finds that city agencies and authorities will have to invest approximately $47.3 billion to maintain the safety and functioning of New York’s infrastructure—leaving a $34.2 billion capital funding gap at the city, Port Authority, New York City Transit, Housing Authority and CUNY over the next five years.
Instead of focusing on the hard work and sacrifices required to maintain the city's infrastructure, necessary if the city is to thrive, this council member wants limited resources dedicated to throwing around band-aids. Is it worth repairing a pothole in five days or less if the whole road is going to be rebuilt the week after? Even when potholes go unplugged, they are hardly the most critical piece of the city's infrastructure in need of repair. They should be fixed, but this bill gives them undue priority. Fits well with the current crop of visionless leaders toying on their lyre while Rome burns.
The only way to deal with the pothole problem is to prevent them in the first place. The city needs to resurface many more streets a year than it currently does.
The contractors and utilities who constantly open up the street are a big problem too. They do substandard patching with the cheapest materials that fall apart after a year or two.
They use some cheap ass stuff to fill the holes and then a couple of months later, the pothole is back. Who does he think He's kidding? Fill potholes within 5 days? Yea right! This city isn't exactly the most reliable with their promises!
This is nuts!!! There are millions of potholes throughout our large city. And he wants them filled in 5 days?? So DOT will do a rush job which will only cause the pothole to open up again in a few days. This new councilman needs to learn how to set his priorities.
Costa is a great guy! He is way better than Peter Vallone.
We had no potholes when Vallone was in office. And all of our trains and buses ran on time.
Costa is a great guy! He is way better than Peter Vallone.
No doubt but it will take him some time before he has a chance to empty and clean out the shark tank of Vallony Baloney Cronies that Lil Pete left behind.
A road in a state of disrepair is a danger. I don't mean the occasional damage to a car speeding over a pothole. But rather the increased vibrations from cars and trucks driving over the road that damage the infrastructure beneath it. Aging water mains that should have been replaced decades ago can start to leak, corroding gas and electrical lines nearby. I can't help but wonder what led to the explosion of that building in Harlem today. And Costa wants to focus on putting a little band-aid on. A sorry excuse for a city leader.
City Council members do not know how to think on their own. They have no common sense. They only know how to pander so they can keep their jobs for another four years.
Is this a PR stunt or what? Maybe Costas would volunteer to fill potholes in his district himself during his "off hours".
If you look at the Harlem River Drive, it was resurfaced years ago with a special material from the Netherlands that is impervious to cold weather. In 15 years, it has maintained its condition with no potholes.
We need to resurface our highways with this material. Yes, it costs more but over the long term, the cost of constantly repairing potholes and resurfacing roads with cheap compounds is even more expensive.
How about we just started deporting people ? Less people equals less cars!
Hard to believe, but last Friday, I reported two potholes in my neighborhood to 311 online.
They repair trucks were there on Sunday morning.
Lori Vitale is Constantinides's wife
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