Pothole problems have 7 city of Cleveland crews on the prowl

CLEVELAND - NewsChannel5 viewer Brian Mathei sent us a photo of himself standing knee deep in a pothole. It was one of many extremely deep potholes awaiting asphalt or concrete repair to make safe again.

For Mathei, the pothole outside of his workplace is a burden on personal and delivery traffic on Cleveland's west side, near West 130th Street on Briar Road. The mile stretch of the industrial area is like a road course of craters.

"It's very dangerous. Even though that it's caved back under the street, someone or a truck could drive down here and the thing could cave in further, it could be a very big hazard," Mathei said.

Steve Cosic was polishing his new wheels on Lorain Avenue on Thursday. He's had to buy new ones from several pothole accidents.

Thursday morning, he was slowed by traffic as he and others dodged hundreds of potholes on the way to the hospital for the birth of his first child. He was hoping to see some crews filling some of them to smooth out the frantic ride.

"I had a baby today, first (time) father. Didn't see one, not one, not one city worker wearing a green jacket, a green vest," Cosic said. "I actually had to stop and put air in my tires here at the car wash.

But a call to the city of Cleveland's Office of the Commissioner of Streets led NewsChannel5 to one of its seven crews filling potholes on East 9th Street at 2 p.m. Thursday. They were working their way south from Lakeside Avenue in view of Lake Erie.

Watching a busy crew underneath the PNC Bank building at the Chester Avenue and East 9th Street intersection, Commissioner of Streets Robert Mavec said his crews are out every day, weather permitting. On Thursday, Mavec had four east-side crews working, with three dedicated to the west side.

"We cover 1,300 center lane miles," Mavec said. "We're doing the best we can, we've had two good days of weather right now, and we're going to continue this until next week and see where the weather goes from there."

Using a recycled mix of used asphalt and other materials, Mavec's crews create their own hot-patch mix to fill holes. One street crew member followed the raking crews with a huge roller, steaming in the cool air as it pressed the mix deep into the holes and cracks of East 9th Street.

Mavec said the plan, as always, is to repair the main surface streets first, moving to residential streets later.

"Every day that we can, we are out here. You know, we can't work during heavy downpours or heavy snow events, but on days like today, we're in full-crew mode,” Mavec said.

The city of Cleveland's Pothole hotline is set up to record reports of troublesome potholes. That number is: 216-664-2510.

For damage claim information resulting from a pothole-caused event call: 216-664-2671