What is Albuquerque doing about potholes?
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – In New Mexico, it seems like there is a never ending amount of potholes on the roads. That’s why the City of Albuquerque has a crew of dedicated employees working around the clock to find and fix the potholes around the city.
KOB 4 spent National Pothole Day with one of those crews.
“They are rough on the car, rough on the people,” said David Farrelly, an Albuquerque driver.
During the winter, especially when it snows or the roads are treated with salt, potholes seem to pop up a lot more often.
“The water gets under the asphalt, and it does break up and pops up the existing asphalt. It creates issues. The freeze creates issues. The snow turns into water, and it creates issues,” said Cesar Contreras, the city’s Street Maintenance supervisor.
Anyone can easily report a pothole to 311. The city says a crew will be out to fix it within a day.
“We are out here 24/7 so we get to that pothole right away,” said Contreras.
Crews can do one patch in less than 45 minutes. Last year, the city says they fixed over 13,000 potholes around Albuquerque.
As far as any specific problem areas, it’s an issue that impacts the entire city.
“Compared to where I was in the Midwest, the potholes in Albuquerque, there aren’t too many of them. I think they do a good job in taking care of potholes,” said McKenzie.
“There is a lot of things wrong with the city, I guess potholes are relatively low on the list, but they should be on the list,” said David Farrell, an Albuquerque driver.
The city says they always have at least two crews working to fix potholes. But when a big storm moves in, there can be as many as five trucks whose only job is filling potholes.