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Youngstown's bumpy ride
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Pothole season came early this year as hard freezes alternated with thaws. Roads are full of the driving hazards like this one on Meridian Road near Vestal Road.
RELATED: A bumpy ride for those in the 'burbs too
By DAVID SKOLNICK
skolnick@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
To those traveling eastbound on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard: Be careful because the street is barely there.
The road, between Rayen and Belmont avenues, is so filled with potholes that a Vindicator reporter saw many eastbound motorists take the chance of driving in the westbound lane and face oncoming traffic rather than risk damaging their vehicles driving through potholes.
Westbound MLK is in terrible condition compared to most other streets in the city, but is in good shape compared to the other side.
“MLK was a disaster last year and we filled in the potholes, but it didn’t last long,” said Mayor John A. McNally.
“We’re aware of it and trying our best to rectify it,” said Sean T. McKinney, the city’s buildings and grounds commissioner who oversees the street department.
That pothole-filled section of MLK is on the city’s list to be repaved this year as part of an estimated $890,000 improvement project with about $580,000 coming from state and federal funds,
McNally said. The work is to start in mid-May, but McNally said city officials will look to do the work earlier.
Also on that repaving list are other well-traveled and well-worn roads: Kirk Road from Meridian to Bears Den roads, Gypsy Lane from Logan to Fifth avenues, and North Hazelwood Avenue from Mahoning to Donald avenues.
“They’re picked because they’re in such bad shape,” McNally said.
The street department has received complaints all over the city with several calls to the uptown area of Market Street, the Fosterville/Idora Park section of Glenwood, and on numerous sections of Meridian, McGuffey and McCartney roads and Fifth Avenue, McKinney said.
The Vindicator asked readers on its Facebook page to provide locations of the worst potholes.
Bill Brandt of Canfield wrote about Steel Street on Youngstown’s West Side: “It’s almost ‘impossible’ to ‘miss’ them, no matter how SLOW you drive [and] try to go around them. They’re WIDE & DEEP and getting worse each DAY!!!”
With the unusual winter weather — unseasonably warm in December, colder with plenty of snow in January, and a very cold start to February with a couple of warm days — cracks and potholes are occurring more often this year compared to previous winters, McNally said.
“I drove up South Avenue and it’s falling apart as we speak,” he said. “I was trying to find out where to drive because there were more holes than street. Everything is falling apart. Maybe last year, with all the snow, we didn’t see potholes this early. It’s a nightmare all over the area. I was on Mahoning Avenue in the Jackson-Milton area Sunday going 55 mph. I hit a pothole and it sounded like a bomb went off.”
“With a freeze-and-warm cycle, it’s been challenging,” McKinney said.
On days it doesn’t snow, the street department has four to five trucks on the road, with three to four workers on each vehicle “cold patching” potholes, he said.
Using a cold patch of asphalt to fill in holes is all city street workers can do during the winter, and it’s a very short-term improvement, McKinney said.
“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a cut,” he said. “It’s a temporary fix. Cold patches work for about one week to one month, depending on the freeze cycle.”
A hot patch is more of a long-term solution, McKinney said, but it can’t be used in low temperatures.