TOLEDO, Ohio - Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz announced an emergency plan Thursday to address the problem of potholes in the city.
The plan will run for six weeks and the Mayor says he's expecting 50,000 potholes will be filled.
“We are dividing the city into four zones and will attack this problem systematically and efficiently for the next six weeks, at the end of which we will have 50,000 fewer potholes than we do today,” Mayor Kapszukiewicz said. “A large contingent of city employees will be methodically moving through streets to fill all potholes in an efficient manner, rather than crisscrossing the city based on complaints. This will be done by zone, which is the most efficient way to tackle this crisis.”
The plan will triple the number of pothole crews on the streets, from four to 13, and will pull in City employees from a number of departments. Most Public Service employees will be diverted from all other duties during the six weeks of the plan and redeployed. Employees at the Department of Public Utilities will also be transferred to pothole duty and the Lucas County Engineers Office will provide and additional two pothole filling crews.
“This is the number one priority for the city right now,” Mayor Kapszukiewicz said. “Cities across the state have struggled to fix roads for years because of major reductions in state allocations. During the past 10 years, the city of Toledo has lost nearly $100 million from the state of Ohio. To put that in perspective, that is roughly the size of our budget for the entire police department and the municipal court system. This has become a crisis for cities all across Ohio. A drive through any of Ohio’s major cities, including Toledo, shows the urgent need to fix our infrastructure problem.”
City crews have already filled more than 25,000 pothole since the beginning of the year.