Six Months Later: Checking in on 12 new pothole workers hired by Colorado Springs
Scott Harrison
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — It was with much fanfare late last September that Mayor Yemi Mobolade announced the city’s hiring of 12 public works employees.
Although those workers have a variety of duties, Mobolade brought them on to fulfill a campaign promise of devoting more resources to filling potholes.
The new crews appear to be off to a successful start — even with milder and drier fall and winter weather bringing less rain, snow and freezing temperatures that contribute to pothole formation.
Richard Mulledy, the city’s public works director, said this week that crews have patched nearly 21,000 potholes this year.
That’s an increase of 7,000 over the same period a year ago.
Mulledy said that the additional manpower has allowed the city to assign 6 to 10 daily crews to focus solely on pothole repairs.
He added that the city has even performed some “saturation operations,” similar to the week-long “pothole blitz” conducted by Pueblo last summer.
However, the two strategies differ in that Pueblo crews used cold mix asphalt to fill more potholes quickly, while Colorado Springs used hot mix asphalt that is a longer process, but results in longer-lasting repairs.
Earlier this week, KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior followed a crew as it filled some of the many potholes along Milton E. Proby Parkway.