Queens Anti-Pothole Brigade Launches Holey War

Sometimes working around the clock on a six-day week, DOT crews, dispatched by Queens Borough Transportation Commissioner Joseph Cannisi, have already repaired well over 21,200 potholes on the boroughs crowded roadways one-third of the Citys totals.
The Queens street and highway system forms an important transportation link with the Citys other boroughs  it has more linear miles of streets than the combined total of Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond.
"Potholes unfortunately are a fact of life in urban areas such as New York City, that have a high volume of vehicular traffic," said Weinshall. "Our Departments ongoing efforts to repair potholes aims to remove these nuisances from the Citys urban landscape."
This years crop of potholes were nurtured by a series of heavy snow storms during the past three months and a resultant three-step freeze/thaw cycle:
 Water resting in small cracks in asphalt highways, continually forms into small wedges during freezing weather and expand the cracks into small holes.
 When weather warms, melted ice flows into the crevices of widened asphalt.
 Freezing weather causes ice wedges to enlarge cracks in roadway until a pothole appears.
Compounding the problem, says Commissioner Cannisi, is that a few more days of rain and freezing weather will widen these cracks even more, even though spring is just around the corner.
Although the current war on potholes is winding down, Commissioner Cannisi urged queens residents to report potholes in their neighborhoods by dialing (718) CALL DOT.
Key to the call, he said, is reporting the exact location of the pothole:
 If its in the middle of an intersection, know the names of the two cross streets.
If the pothole is in the middle of a block, know the street name and the street names at each corner. If possible, give the address of a home in front of the pothole.