“The Pothole Killer is a great piece of technology that will allow us to repair streets where potholes are a problem,” said Johnson.

The councilman said that although the initial pothole locations have already been mapped out, he said that residents whose streets need pothole repair call borough hall.

“If we can take care of a residents’ concern now we will; if not, I am sure will have access to the equipment again and we can fix more potholes in the future,” said Johnson.

The Pothole Killer was developed by  Patch Management of Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania.

Want to Report A PotHole? Go To:  Report A Pothole

But bridges turn out to be the crown jewel, relatively speaking, in the state’s deteriorating transportation network, according to a report card to be released today by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

It gives the state’s roads and mass transit systems the same dismal grade: D-minus. Pennsylvania’s bridges got a grade of C.

That is actually a step back for the state’s overall transportation infrastructure from the ASCE’s previous Pennsylvania report card, issued in 2006, which said “the Keystone State is crumbling.” That report gave roads a D, bridges a C and transit a D-plus.

The report card comes at a time of looming drastic cuts in state spending on roads, bridges and transit, unless the Legislature comes up with an alternative to the $472 million for the coming fiscal year that was expected to be financed with Interstate 80 tolls.

The Federal Highway Administration in April rejected the state’s request to toll I-80. That left a gaping hole in the funding scheme of Act 44, which the Legislature passed in 2007 to solve the state’s chronic transportation funding shortages.

“Not only have many areas of our state’s infrastructure been critically underfunded for decades, threatening our economy and quality of life, but we are currently facing a major crisis in funding roads, transit and other parts of our transportation system,” said Greg Scott, ASCE Region 2 governor.

Amid the crisis, the House Transportation Committee has scheduled statewide public hearings to gather input on possible solutions. One will be held at 11 a.m. June 18 at Gateway High School in Monroeville.

The ASCE, representing 139,000 civil engineers worldwide, issued grades to Pennsylvania in 12 categories in its “2010 Report Card for Pennsylvania’s Infrastructure.”

Other grades were parks and recreation, B-minus; solid waste, C; dams and levees, C-minus; rail, B; storm water, D-minus; drinking water, D-plus; navigable waterways, D-plus; schools, B-minus; and wastewater, D-plus. The state’s overall grade was D-plus.

Mr. Scott said water infrastructure is the second most pressing problem after transportation.

“We are reaching the point where the investments of the past have run out. Many parts of the water systems in cities and towns statewide are a century or more old, and major water main breaks are common.”
Roads — D-minus

Based on the International Roughness Index, 38 percent of the state’s roads are in fair or poor condition. Pennsylvania ranks fifth in the nation for miles of state-owned highways, and truck traffic on interstate highways in the state is double the national average.

“Simply keeping the road system from degrading, let alone improving it, requires more than is currently available in the budget,” the report said.

While the economic slump reduced travel on the state’s highways, demand and congestion are “predicted to rise greatly in the near future,” it said.

PennDOT has shifted its focus from building new capacity to maintaining what it already has. Only about 5 percent of its budget goes to capacity-increasing projects, down from 20 percent.

In addition to the uncertainty over state funding, Congress has not replaced the federal surface transportation law that expired in August, instead passing extensions that provide no growth in aid to states.

The state did get a one-time boost from the stimulus law, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provided about $1.5 billion for road, bridge and transit projects.

The loss of I-80 as a revenue source already has put the brakes on 20 major projects and Gov. Ed Rendell has called a special session of the Legislature to tackle the shortfall.

“Other sources of funding that have been discussed are increases to registration and licensing fees and an increase to the [state motor fuel tax],” the ASCE said. “Recent proposals for gas tax increases have not been able to garner enough political support to become a reality. Until another major source of funding is agreed upon, however, the state’s ability to maintain the existing roadway system will be severely affected.”
Transit — D-minus

The Governor’s Transportation Funding and Reform Commission reported in 2006 that revenue shortfalls were chronic for transit agencies across the state and were exacerbated by growth in fuel and health care costs. Another layer of woe came with the collapse of financial markets, which seriously eroded the agencies’ pension funds.

“In the past, the overall financial underpinning of the commonwealth’s transit program was weak and the program structure was dysfunctional,” the ASCE said. “Unless a long-term funding solution is found, transit system users throughout the state will face significant service reductions, fare increases and reduced mobility, including senior citizens and persons with disabilities.”

The service reductions “will contribute to more cars on our already overburdened roads, more impact on the environment, and more gallons of gas consumed,” Mr. Scott said.
Bridges — C

Twenty-seven percent of the state’s bridges are structurally deficient, compared with 12 percent nationwide.

The report said Pennsylvania’s percentage is higher in part because of winter weather and the fact that the bridges are older, with the average age being 50.

It credited PennDOT with keeping the problem from getting worse with its Accelerated Bridge Program, begun in 2008. The number of bridges bid out for construction work rose from 225 in 2007 to 540 in fiscal 2008-09, and Pennsylvania devoted $390 million of its $1 billion in federal stimulus funding to bridge work.

“Without PennDOT’s recent bridge program emphasis, the numbers would be significantly worse,” the ASCE said.

It said there is $11 billion in “immediately needed” bridge repairs and urged the state to set a goal of reaching the national average of deficient bridges by 2033. It warned that inadequate funding would reverse the recent progress.

The ASCE report follows another this month by a state advisory panel that said Pennsylvania’s transportation system “is in a state of crisis” and will require $3.5 billion a year to catch up.

“It is becoming increasingly difficult for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, transit agencies and local governments to maintain, improve and provide the infrastructure and services to meet Pennsylvania’s mobility needs,” said Louis C. Schultz Jr., chairman of a task force of the Pennsylvania State Transportation Advisory Committee.

My name is Robert Mendoza and I serve as the Director of Public Works. I want to thank you all for joining us to discuss the State of our City’s streets. As this City and our Department continue to recover from the greatest man-made and natural disaster in our nation’s history, I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on the progress we have made and share our future outlook for improving our City’s bicycle, pedestrian and motor vehicle infrastructure.

During this event you will hear more information about projects that will improve our infrastructure damaged during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; the efforts immediately following the storms; the restarting of our operational programs and capital programs; and new initiatives and opportunities we’ve seized upon. Through new partnerships with federal, state and other local agencies, we are rebuilding our communities one sidewalk, one roadway and one bridge at a time.

While rebuilding our operations, we looked for programs that provided efficiency and innovation. We introduced the Pothole Killer in January 2007. This machine, developed to repair smaller potholes throughout the City, replaced a traditional four man potholing crew and allowed the Department to redeploy our resources to other areas.

The Pothole Killers allow us to be more proactive in repairing smaller potholes before they become any larger and potentially lead to full rehabilitation or reconstruction projects earlier than desired.

In 2007, we repaired over 77,000 potholes an increase of almost 50,000 from 2006. In 2008, we repaired over 87,000 potholes and are on track to repair over 100,000 in 2009.

Since the launch of this program, we have added three Pothole Killers to our fleet to address minor patching needs in all five City Council Districts.

Following last year’s success with using the special machines known as the “Pothole Killers,” the city will be using not one, but two of them to fill in the various cracks in the pavement throughout the city. Those machines will be hitting the streets over the course of forr the next two months.

Last year, the city leased one machine for $8,900 dollars a month. The city’s Parks Commissioner, Dave Short, says there are multiple benefits to using the pothole killers, “it’s the best thing out there. We can’t beat this doing it by hand, by the old method. This covers triple the ground, we don’t waste material. It stays in there for five years where as the old patch stays there for 6 months if that its better economics we cover a lot more territory and its a better product.”

If you’d like to report a pothole in your area, you can call the “May I” hotline. It’s 315-269-3109.

Following last year’s success with using the special machines known as the “Pothole Killers,” the city will be using not one, but two of them to fill in the various cracks in the pavement throughout the city. Those machines will be hitting the streets over the course of forr the next two months.

Last year, the city leased one machine for $8,900 dollars a month. The city’s Parks Commissioner, Dave Short, says there are multiple benefits to using the pothole killers, “it’s the best thing out there. We can’t beat this doing it by hand, by the old method. This covers triple the ground, we don’t waste material. It stays in there for five years where as the old patch stays there for 6 months if that its better economics we cover a lot more territory and its a better product.”

If you’d like to report a pothole in your area, you can call the “May I” hotline. It’s 315-269-3109.

Read more from WKTV in Utica here

“We’ve had more than 100 pothole reports through Twitter alone,” said DDOT Director Gabe Klein, “and the response overall has been fantastic. After this brutal winter, we expected a harsh pothole season as well, and with the public’s help we’re now making great progress in repairing our roads.”

DDOT dispatches as many as 10 crews and three “pothole killer” trucks to make the repairs, and they have filled 3,481 potholes since the campaign was launched. Since the first of the year, DDOT crews have filled 11,384 potholes, compared with 2,912 potholes filled during the first 78 days of 2009. That’s almost a 300 percentÖ increase.

To report a pothole, residents and commuters can call the mayor’s call center at 311, use the on-line service request center at www.dc.gov, text message or Tweet to www.twitter.com/DDOTDC, or e-mail potholepalooza@dc.gov.

– Ashley Halsey III

Masquerading as puddles, they blow tires, crush wheels, and send cars limping to repair shops.

Potholes are so numerous that some local officials have scheduled public-works crews on weekends to handle the backlog of complaints.

“My car was the third one in 10 minutes to flatten a tire on the same pothole” in Winslow Township, said Michelle Vitucci of Sicklerville. “I was so angry. You just feel so helpless.”

And this is only the beginning.

As the temperature creeps up in coming weeks, an even bigger crop of potholes is expected, Pennsylvania and New Jersey transportation officials said.

Many badly cratered streets will have to be resurfaced, officials said. In the meantime, there are traffic backups caused by drivers slaloming around the hazards.

And the cost of the road work in overtime and patching materials is adding to a winter maintenance bill that was already inflated by multiple snow-removal efforts.

“We haven’t had a winter like this . . . in probably forever,” said Camden County Freeholder Ian Leonard, liaison to the county Department of Public Works.

In Philadelphia and surrounding counties, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is repairing road damage along more than 8,900 lane miles.

In the city, the pothole-related “calls that we’re getting from 311 and our service requests are triple what they were last year,” Steph Buckley, deputy commissioner for transportation in the Philadelphia Streets Department, said yesterday.

The city has sent out highway crews and two “Pothole Killers,” trucks with equipment that blows debris from the holes and fills them with liquid asphalt.

Sections of Cottman and Grays Ferry Avenues are heavily pocked and Lincoln Drive has been littered with hubcaps from wheel-pothole impacts.

As though the potholes weren’t enough, the city was forced to close the 2000 block of Walnut Street late yesterday when part of the street collapsed due to a leak in an underground sewer line.

In the Pennsylvania suburbs, crews have hit problem areas along Routes 1 and 252 in Delaware County; Routes 611 and 63 in Montgomery County; Cherry Road in Buckingham Township, and northbound Route 309 at the 152 interchange in West Rockhill Township in Bucks County; and King Road in West Whiteland Township and Sugartown Road in Easttown Township in Chester County.

“We’re the Marines; we’re on the front lines,” said Nick Martino, PennDot director of maintenance for District Six.

Eugene Blaum, a PennDot spokesman, said the agency was “darn close” to depleting its approximately $18 million budget for winter services, which is bad news for next winter. When money is left over, he said, it’s applied to paving, which prevents future potholes.

In New Jersey, road damage has been equally widespread. One large cavity took out the tires of about a half-dozen cars this month in the northbound lanes of I-295 near the Woodcrest station.

In Winslow Township, Michelle Vitucci, a nuclear-medicine technologist, was headed home last week on New Brooklyn Road when she had her pothole encounter.

“You don’t see it coming,” she said. “It’s like a game on the road, trying to miss each pothole.”

So far this year, the New Jersey Department of Treasury has received 53 requests for compensation from motorists whose cars were damaged on state roads, officials said. Thirty others are waiting to be entered. More than 600 claims were made in 2009.

Counties and municipalities also have received claims for road incidents for which they are responsible.

The job of filling potholes is up to public-works crews using “cold patch,” a gravel-asphalt mix, to fix the worst offenders until a permanent repair can be made.

“A lot of the asphalt companies are closed right now. Asphalt won’t work under 40 degrees,” said Fran McCrory, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Transportation, which is responsible for about 12,000 miles of state roads. Hot-asphalt patches will have to wait.

So far, New Jersey Turnpike crews have fixed at least 1,300 potholes – double the number they addressed last year at this time, turnpike authority spokesman Joe Orlando said. About $400,000 has been spent on the repairs.

Winter road damage “has been a huge deal for us,” said Charles Jones, a supervisor in Cherry Hill Township’s highway department, as he worked with a crew filling a crater near Borton Mill and Warfield Roads. “We’ve fixed hundreds of potholes. It takes about 15 minutes to fill in a good-size one.”

The roads have been under constant assault in recent months.

“The amount of salt we put on the roads, the freeze, thaw, and refreeze didn’t help,” said Dominic Vesper Jr., deputy administrator in charge of Camden County’s Public Works Department. “It breaks down the road surface.”

County officials are taking “a six-day approach” to keep up with the holes, Vesper said. “We have 40 to 50 employees attending to them and a crew of eight to 10 coming in on Saturdays.”

Workers fill several hundred holes each weekday and 50 to 100 on Saturdays, Vesper said. “The costs are starting to add up,” he said. “But it’s a matter of public safety.”

In Cherry Hill, the Department of Public Works spent $6,733 on patching materials from July 1 to Dec. 31, and nearly double that – $12,280 – from Jan. 1 to March 1. It also assigned a Saturday crew to road repairs.

So far, more than 2,000 potholes have been fixed in the township. The number of repairs “is off the charts,” Cherry Hill spokesman Dan Keashen said. “There’s no comparison. . . . These storms have taken the top prize for potholes.”

In Camden, four public-works crews patched more than 800 potholes Monday, Mayor Dana L. Redd said.

In Burlington County, one of the worst pothole sites has been the Marlton Circle, where Routes 73 and 70 come together.

The road is under construction there and heavy equipment has exacerbated the problem.

When the temperatures hit the mid-50s and 60s, “that’s when we will see more potholes rearing their ugly heads,” Evesham Mayor Randy Brown said.

Though potholes have been a problem for motorists and government officials, they are a kind of blessing for repair shops.

At Moorestown Mall, Diane Rickman, a retail sales manager at Vespia’s Goodyear car-care center, said the shop sold 15 tires and performed five alignments on Sunday, many of them pothole-related. The shop is running a “Pothole Special.”

At Philadelphia Tire & Auto Service at Broad and Green Streets, manager John Gabriel said his shop had “probably sold 20 tires in the last two weeks – tires and a lot of wheels. Last week was pretty constant. You call the junkyard and you can’t even get wheels.”

Craig Baclit, president of Patch Management Inc., said potholes “typically form when there’s a fracture in the road surface. When water gets into the fractures, it freezes and a pothole develops.”

Baclit said as the ice expands, coupled with traffic running over it, the pothole gets bigger. He said chemicals used on streets, such as calcium chloride and various salts, also cause potholes to increase in size.

What is the cure? According to Baclit, potholes are generally repaired using “cold patch” in climates below 50 degrees Fahrenheit or using hot asphalt when the temperatures heat up.

“A cold patch is modified asphalt,” said Baclit, citing the lack of adhesion and bonding as its primary drawback. “It’s not really going to give you a very long-term solution,” he said, adding the patch could be ruined within hours.

Baclit said hot asphalt provides a longer term solution. Crews will square a hole, fill it and roll it; however, Baclit said the process can only be done in warmer environments when asphalt plants are operating.

Baclit cites time, manpower and safety as the biggest issues plaguing traditional attempts at filling potholes. Roadways must be cleared while crewmen work and the patches must have time to dry.

Baclit began Patch Management Inc. 15 years ago in Pennsylvania to combat such hazards and inconsistencies regarding year-round pothole repair work.

The business owns the patents on the PK2000 Pothole Killer truck, thanks to inventor and Chief Operating Officer Scott Aleiger. According to the company’s Web site, the vehicle is “the most advanced spray injection patcher in the industry.”

Two materials are stored separately in one truck at a piping 150 degrees Fahrenheit, said Baclit, which allows it to operate in any climate.

The operator first blows out the pothole to remove loose debris. Then he or she fills it with an asphalt emulsion, which allows for bonding, followed by an aggregate used to fill the void.

“It sets up within 15 minutes,” Baclit said. Vehicles can begin driving over it immediately and the average pothole repair lasts 42 months, he said, adding there were prior repairs that weathered Hurricane Katrina.

Furthermore, not only is it a single person operation, but the operator never has to get out of the truck. “It’s all controlled within the vehicle,” Baclit said.

Baclit said a commitment to environmental responsibility has pushed his company to greener efforts, as well. The asphalt emulsion is recyclable and cleaning agents used on the trucks are biodegradable and produce no waste materials.

Headquartered in Pennsylvania, Patch Management Inc. has operations in New Orleans and Washington, D.C. The technology has been used in Passaic and Somerset counties, and by the New York State Department of Transportation.

Baclit said the company leases out trucks to various locations, trains the operators and provides maintenance and all the materials. He added as “technology changes, we upgrade them.”

Baclit said cost varies, but according to reports, the traditional pothole repair method costs an average of $68, whereas the Patch Management Inc. method costs $38.

“Everybody’s budget is being stressed today,” said Baclit. “This makes sense. It’s cost effective, environmentally friendly and safer.”

E-mail: greenberg@northjersey.com

Since the Blizzard of 2010 hit (twice last week) more and more potholes have been popping up around town.

The problem for road crews has been two-fold. First, the focus in these parts is still on snow removal and not pothole repair. First things first. Second, water from the slowly melting snow has been freezing and expanding at night. That leads to the hole in the road as the dirt and gravel is pushed out when the water melts.

It’s the old Catch-22. Cars and truck continue to drive over these unseen holes, putting even more stress on the thin asphalt layer that covers them. Soon the asphalt layer over these holes in the roads collapses.

Boom, that’s a Baltimore pothole you just hit. Out come the roads crews with those shovels filled with asphalt patch.

Some say all potholes are measured against those here in Baltimore City. Ask any auto repair shop that does alignments.

Yes, that’s a newsroom stapler (below) I put in that pothole to show you how deep it is.

What makes matters worse that as long as it’s cold and wet like it’s been it’s very difficult for roads crews to make any dent repairing these bumps in the road in Baltimore.

That’s where some folks in Philadelphia say they have the answer. They call it The Pothole Killer

Patch Management, Inc. says it’s PK2000 equipment, nicknamed The Pothole Killer, is uniquely suited to fight damaged roads when they are at their worst – following winter weather like we’ve been experiencing in Baltimore.

They say it’s all based on a spray patching system that allows The Pothole Killer to repair roads damaged by snow and ice quickly and effectively. Picture a truck with a huge arm on the front of it reaching out to fill potholes in Baltimore. The Virginia Department of Transportation gave it a shot.

The people at Patch Management say its system uses one crew member, who never needs to leave the truck to fill a pothole and complete a job. Instead, the operator points the vehicle’s nozzle at the pothole and sprays in a warm substance to fill the hole which is then topped off by a barrier coating made from recycled tires. They say this method is particularly effective when snow and ice goes unplowed on side streets, creating potholes that normal crews would have a difficult time fixing.

Earlier this week the City of Baltimore made a call north to a Canadian firm to help deal with the city’s snow. Next thing you knew the Snow Dragon was here melting thousands of pounds of snow removed from city streets.

Who knows, maybe someone in Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s office may call these folks in Philadelphia and we could see The Pothole Killer doing its thing on city streets. Some say for all that Baltimore’s road crews have been up against in the last week they are due for some help plugging the plethora of potholes. Just a few day patch of sorts until the city road crews are done with the snow and rested after a long week.

Heck a few days ago we never heard of the Snow Dragon.

See the full WBAL article here