pothole.info

As you may already know, our Senior Reporter, Russ Klettke, appeared on the Colin McEnroe Show on WNPR, Connecticut Public Radio. The show aired live on Monday, March 7th, at 1 PM EST. If you missed the show, listen here.

Our Senior Reporter, Russ Klettke, will be appearing on the Colin McEnroe Show on WNPR, Connecticut Public Radio. The show will air live on Monday, March 7th, at 1 PM EST. The topic will of course be potholes, and several other relevant guests will join the discussion. CPTV / WNPR Web Site: http://www.cpbn.org/ Listen Live: http://www.cpbn.org/listen-live

In a city known more for grunge bands, coffee, rain and Nordstrom’s, there emerges a new phenomenon that has the citizenry buzzing. Yup, it’s potholes. All that rain – and this winter, a good dose of snow as well – has to go somewhere. Where there are cracks in the pavement, that includes in and under the asphalt, leading to a proliferation of potholes that required filling 91 percent more…

There are two ways to attack the pothole problem. One is to fix the potholes. The other is to drive a car that is tougher than any chuckhole that comes its way. With current technology and resources, neither is 100% possible. Potholes are inevitable, even if there are smarter and better ways to build and maintain roads today. Come winter and spring, in almost every town in every climate, there…

In the business of potholes, when the weather is coldest is actually when things really heat up. We are talking heated emotions over damages to vehicles from potholes. And heated pressure on road crews and politicians. Sometimes, a hot asphalt mix is used to repair the potholes found in highways to fix them. But in the coldest environs, a temporary cold patch mix is more often used for pothole repair.…

Car insurance rates are typically set according to drivers’ ages, occupations, credit scores, home ownership and levels of education, in addition to moving traffic violations and accident records. It has never been practical to observe how exactly a driver would, say, handle an open stretch of road at 3 a.m. Or for that matter, how he or she might negotiate a pothole-ridden boulevard in rush hour. Not until now, anyway.…

Chicago’s most trusted meteorologist, Tom Skilling, dares to guide the 8 million people in the greater Chicago metro area through some of the country’s most harsh and unpredictable weather. From his perch as chief weathercaster on WGN-TV and the Chicago Tribune, he is the point of first consult every morning for those who plan to venture outside – spring, summer and fall, but most especially, in winter. The frigid season…

The most modern of innovations, smartphone apps, are rapidly becoming a means to fix one of humankind’s oldest problems: potholes. And why not? Regardless of whether you were a fan of Isaac Asimov or the television show “Bewitched,” the futuristic/magical ability to point at a problem and fix it instantly (well, almost) is instinctively appealing. To do that, there are now several apps that combine the basic smart phone tools…

The storms that hit the Philadelphia-Baltimore-Washington D.C. area in mid-February 2010 were largely predicted by the Farmers’ Almanac, months before they happened. Editor Sandi Duncan acknowledges their predictions were a bit off – they didn’t expect it would land as far south as it did, which was attributed to a stronger-than-expected El Nino effect – but she uses the case to support their veracity at long-range weather forecasters. The potholes that…

The La Nina weather pattern is in force in the Pacific Ocean off Chile, and that means less snow in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tri-state region. At least, that’s what the National Weather Service is predicting – a forecast that more or less concurs with the Old Farmer’s Almanac, which makes its predictions based on sunspots, tidal waves and astrological positions. Says the Almanac: “Colder than normal winter temperatures” will prevail,…

The weather predictions for the first part of the winter of 2010-2011 are coming in. Without question, in New England there will be snow, cold, rain, rain-snow mixes interspersed with fair and warmer days. In Massachusetts, there will be less snow than in Maine – mostly because Maine is bigger and further north. But suffice it to say, with precipitation, snow or rain or sleet come hazardous road conditions –…

In a year characterized by voters who resist government growth and increased taxes, seven of nine San Francisco Bay-area counties are proposing auto registration fee hikes in a voter referendum. Wherever Proposition AA passes – if it passes – drivers in those counties will pay an additional $10 per year. An additional $18 vehicle registration surcharge is being voted on in a separate statewide proposition (Proposition 21). What will the…

We are not sure why there are competing farmers in the world of Almanacs, and why neither of them had the good sense to set up their own cable weather channel. Instead of Jim Cantore standing in sideways wind and talking about storm surges during every hurricane, we might have gotten someone losing their John Deere hat while talking about the benefits of rain. But it is reassuring that year…

Few words send chills up the spine of landlords like “premises liability.” This is an area of personal injury law that enables an injured party – renters, guests of renters, even delivery people – to sue the owner of the property for failure to provide a safe environment. Every day, there are 25,000 slip, trip and fall accidents in the U.S., which account for 21 percent of all ER visits, according…

Potholes are in the news, twelve months out of the year – which defies the popular perception that potholes are simply the result of winter freeze-thaw cycles. In some cases, the newsworthy potholes of summer are holdovers from six months prior, but even winter-free tropical regions get chuckholes from moisture, solar heat and traffic wear and tear. This is the pothole report from the summer of 2010. It was a…

We call them “potholes.” And when we hit a particularly deep, jarring one, we may refer to them as %@!*ing potholes. These abrupt breaks in pavement come in all shapes and sizes, cause thousands of dollars of damage to cars, trucks and buses, and they’re a growing fiscal problem for local, state and national budgets. But where does the name come from? Folklore has it that the famous road builders…

Chamber members’ clients rely on more than a safe roadway to travel from home to a business for the service or product they seek. They also rely on household income to make their purchases. In light of current legislation, not only do transportation funding woes jeopardize your customers’ safe travel, newly introduced woes jeopardize customers’ pocketbooks with trickle-down effect from higher user fees. Here’s what’s going on with transportation funding,…

Some potholes are just little cracks. And some could swallow an Escalade. Which is kind of the point: potholes grow bigger the longer they are left unfixed. They are almost alive.

Anyone who ever leaves home knows the problems with roads, highways, parking lots and driveways. Most aging pavement in America, due to use, time and neglect, is in dire need of asphalt repair. But highway maintenance is so lagging that many people assume it is a losing battle. That assumption is wrong. Fixing any kind of pavement, public or private, as it begins to show the signs of deterioration proves…

Advertising Age magazine reports (May 31, 2010) statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation that show an overall decrease in driving by Americans under the age of 30. For example, in 1978 no less than 92 percent of 19-year-olds had a driver’s license; by 2008, that number slipped to 77 percent. The magazine also reports the share of miles driven by younger people has fallen over the past 15 years.…

American highway construction and repair is dependent on the Highway Trust Fund, which is largely generated through taxes on auto and truck fuel consumption. The tax has risen significantly in the past 30 years, but fuel taxes imposed by the Federal government date back to the Depression era. This is a primer on how the gas tax works, where the money is spent, how gas taxes were used to reduce…