Despite ringing in the New Year with a bomb cyclone, this January has been unusually warm across the country. We don’t need to turn to our Weather App to know that spring will be here before we know it. Instead, we can turn to the roads, where potholes are making their yearly pre-spring appearance thanks to alternating freeze-thaw temperatures.
Potholes made headlines this week as these infrastructure failures stopped traffic in Washington, D.C. Holes bigger than bathtubs required emergency repairs, closing part of the Clara Barton Parkway earlier this week, just in time for those commuting from Maryland to D.C. The National Park Service stepped in to patch these man-sized potholes after commuters reported dangerously large holes that caused them to swerve around the damage or pop tires driving over it. For perspective, take a look at just how large these potholes really are!
Also this week, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is in the midst of “Pothole Blitz.” With over 300 potholes reported in the city, the Pittsburgh Public Works crews are working to fill as many potholes as possible within the span of a few days.
Infrastructure failures on the road and in the news have shown that our surface transportation needs funding and attention. President Trump is expected to announce his infrastructure plan on Tuesday, January 30 during his State of the Union address and we hope that all of our elected leaders are thinking about how to prioritize investment for not only our surface transportation, but for each infrastructure category. It is important that they work to fix our infrastructure problems and to find innovative solutions to keep our infrastructure resilient during winters to come.
To find out how your state’s roads stack up, take a look at our State by State map.