Pothole season off to mild start, drivers not complaining

Who can forget the brutality of the previous two winters and the punishing effects they had on roads across the Delaware Valley?

Franciskus Bertle says he had just moved to Lansdale from Austria right before the winter of 2014.

"I had to learn how to avoid potholes and to be extra careful driving," said Bertle. "It is better this year, but I've had my fair share of potholes, even this year."

Bertle is right. There are some potholes out there.

This is, after all, the start of pothole season for the Northeastern United States.

But there is no comparison between the damage done over the last two winters and what we're seeing now.

For example, PennDOT spokesperson Gene Blaum says this year they may only need 20,000 tons of road patch material.

"Last year we put over 82,000 tons of patching material between our PennDOT crews contractors that worked under emergency contracts last spring," said Blaum.

The reduced need for road salt helped matters as well.

Last year, PennDOT had to drop 169,000 tons of salt on highways across our region. This year they only used 55,000 tons.

We spoke with several commuters who say it didn't even dawn on them that pothole season was off to a mild start until we mentioned it.

"I drive down to the city like every day to school down there. I just graduated a couple weeks ago," said Amy Altomare of East Norriton. "And I didn't notice them at all."

"There's not that many potholes, I mean, some of them last year were like craters," said Lisa Delaney of Lower Gwynedd.

To report a pothole:

PennDOT

1-800-FIX-ROAD

1-800-349-7623

Philadelphia Pothole Reporting

311

http://potholes.phila.gov/

NJDOT

1-800-POTHOLE

1-800-768-4653

DelDOT

Transportation Management Center

302-659-4600

#77 from your cell phone