JACKSON, Mich. (WLNS) — Spring is here and massive potholes have come right along with it.
But one local community has an ambitious plan.
Jackson County road crews are working to fill every pothole on roads they service by Memorial Day.
6 News went out with crews Tuesday morning as they worked on Hawkins Road in Leoni Township.
Inch by inch, pothole by pothole, workers from the Jackson County Department of Transportation are on the frontlines in their war on potholes.
“It’s the worst season we’ve had for potholes in recent memory, maybe ever,” said Christopher Bolt, Managing Director of JDOT.
Bolt says crews are working around the clock to patch potholes.
But with the situation this bad, $1 million is being spent to bring in outside contractors to help county workers.
“Which should give us an additional 10,000 hours of crew work out there,” Bolt said.
JDOT has a goal of getting every pothole in their service areas patched by Memorial Day.
“Any imperfection in the road surface, especially potholes, is a serious safety concern. We want to get out there and get ahead of this if we can. We have a lot of other work we need to do,” Bolt said.
JDOT says they need all the help they can get to battle the pothole problem.
So if you see a pothole, they want to hear about it, and see it.
“We like it when people call in, but even better yet, to use our new Jackson County app where they can take a photograph of the situation and send it in. We do respond to that, and make a service request,” Bolt said.
Bolt says they’re also focused on long-term fixes, like spending $34 million on repairs this summer, and using new high-tech asphalt recycling equipment that will make roads last longer.
“Our employees work very hard day in and day out and we’re doing our very best. We’ll hopefully get this done as soon as we can so we can move onto the construction season,” Bolt said.
