Scott Harrison
COORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Similar to last summer’s pothole “blitz” in Pueblo, officials in Colorado Springs plan to start a pothole “surge,” or saturation patrol, for a more aggressive response to patching potholes.
It’s a very, very big deal,” said Corey Farkas, the city’s manager for public works operations and maintenance.
The surge starts Tuesday and will continue for five weeks.
“Expect to see advancement, action, and improvement,” promised Mayor Yemi Mobolade, who’s following through with a campaign promise to devote more manpower and resources to pothole repairs.
Officials said that the surge will come in two operations; one is what Farkas describes as a “district pave strike team.”
“Our in-house crews are going to be out identifying (streets) that will not be targeted by 2C (the city’s annual expanded paving program), but are still riddled with potholes,” he explained. Crews are going to be doing maintenance paving on those roadways.”
In maintenance paving, crews apply an asphalt layer over a street segment that has dozens of potholes — thus saving the time and resources of filling each pothole.
The affected street segment may or may not be milled — having old pavement scraped off — before receiving temporary repaving, and such paving is meant to last until funds are available for a full repave.
Recent examples of maintenance paving were in 2024 on the south end of Circle Drive, which is currently being repaved, and on the south end of Venetucci Boulevard, which recently became part of the city’s jurisdiction.
The second surge operation will place two pothole repair trucks in each of the city’s four public works districts to conduct “search and destroy” missions on any potholes they see.
However, city officials continue to urge residents to report potholes when and where they see them, because only 10% of pothole repairs come from public reporting.
Officials also revealed that they recently received funding approval for two new pothole trucks to replace the two oldest trucks in the fleet of 13.
In explaining why it may take crews longer than citizens expect to respond to pothole requests, Farkas emphasized that trucks occasionally break down because they’re constantly in use.
“Only six were operating last year,” he recalled. “10 of 13 are currently working, but that can change — especially with weather conditions.”
Farkas said that during the surge, some crews will be pulled from other public works tasks.
“Our crews have (more than 20) duties they’re responsible for,” he said.
Limited resources, the sheer size of the city’s infrastructure, and weather can affect the time required for a crew to respond to a pothole report, officials said.
“We prioritize on several things,” said Richard Mulledy, the city’s public works director. “Certainly, safety is one of those. The condition of the road itself that we’re working on, traffic volume, and also coordination with other work.”
The city plans to gather data from the surge and use it to learn more specifics about the average response time for pothole reports, as well as to develop a “heat map” to show areas that are “hot spots” for potholes.
Mayor Mobolade also announced that he will patch some potholes during the surge.
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