Thomas MacMIllan Photo
As pothole season sets in, the city unveiled a new high-tech plan for faster filling those road craters around town.
City Hall is teaming up with local internet start-up SeeClickFix to create a system that will translate citizen pothole complaints directly into street repair work orders for the Department of Public Works (DPW). The program will streamline city response to pothole problems and save money in the process, said city officials.
The partnership was announced at a Wednesday morning press conference on Gilbert Avenue, where DPW staffers Wilfredo Perez (at right in photo) and Donnie Rogers (at left) were hard at work filling gaping potholes with hot asphalt.
Howard Weissberg (at right in photo below), deputy director of the DPW, said potholes increase this time of year as the ground thaws. The warm weather also means that the DPW can start using “hot mix” to repair the holes. Work crews will be focusing on laying down hot asphalt patches throughout March and April. Crews will be canvassing the city and handling emergency complaints, Weissberg said.
Jeff Blasius (center in photo below), chief technology officer with SeeClickFix, said his civic problem-reporting website is working on an unprecedented integration with the city of New Haven. The city already monitors the SeeClickFix website for complaints about traffic and infrastructure issues. But in another couple of months, the website will be set up so that pothole complaints filed on SeeClickFix will be patched directly into the city’s computerized work order system. (You can access SeeClickFix on the Independent’s homepage.)
In a few months, neighbors will be able to file a work order for pothole repair straight from their mobile phones. Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts (at left in photo) demonstrated how the system will work, using his Blackberry cellphone. Say you drive over a particularly nasty pothole on your street. You can get out of your car, pull out your mobile phone and take a picture of the offending cavity. If your phone is GPS-enabled, the precise coordinates of that pothole will be recorded. Then you can send the photo to SeeClickFix.com, where it will be channeled directly to the the city and a work order will be filed with the DPW. The DPW aims to repair potholes within two business days, according to a release from the city.
For those without a smartphone, pothole complaints can be filed online at SeeClickFix.com or by calling the DPW at 203 946 7700.
The city’s integration with SeeClickFix will save time and money, Smuts said. It takes less staff time to field an email than a phone call, and still less to field an automated SeeClickFix submission than an email, he said. The city will be paying SeeClickFix for its partnership, but that money and more will be recouped by streamlined pothole reporting, Smuts said.
Gilbert Avenue was chosen for Wednesday’s press event because of the deplorable state of its cracked and cratered surface. All New Haven’s city streets were recently given numerical and letter grades, based on their condition. Gilbert Avenue got an F, Smuts said.
As city officials spoke, Perez and Rogers worked steadily to repair potholes. Perez said it takes about 15 minutes to fill each hole. The patches should last the whole summer he said. Gilbert Avenue was chosen on Wednesday because residents have complained vociferously about its cratered surface.
When the DPW repairs potholes, it works down a list of streets based on the number of neighborhood complaints, Perez said. The DPW has its work cut out for it. “Oh man, we got a lot of complaints from the whole city,” Perez said.