In Hoboken, residents have to learn to take the good with the bad.
The good news is that spring is on the way and temperatures will soon begin to rise. But warmer weather following a cold winter creates a new problem for motorists and road crews: potholes big enough to swallow your car, or at least cause serious damage.
“It’s been a pretty harsh winter,” said Hoboken’s Director of Environmental Services Joseph Peluso Wednesday, “and that usually means a lot of potholes are going to need to be filled.”
He said the cold, moist winter might make this year’s pothole season worse than usual, but the city will do everything it can to smooth drivers’ paths.
The ingredients of a hard winter provide the recipe for potholes. Snow, ice and rain provide ample moisture, and severe cold causes pavement cracking that allows water to seep in, expand and displace paving material.
Add sunlight, which creates varying temperatures that keep the damaging freeze/thaw cycle in motion. And finally, warmer spring weather accelerates the freeze/thaw cycle, causing the pavement to deteriorate even more quickly.
“It’s like driving on a cobblestone road,” said Garden Street resident Kent Roberson, who commutes to Nutley every day. He said the northwest portion of the city, especially Madison Street, has been full of potholes.
“I now have an oil leak from puncturing my car’s oil pan on a pothole,” warned one Monroe Street resident. “Not only that, but it threw my car’s steering out of alignment.”
Peluso said that the day after President’s Day, city workers have been out filling the annoying and sometimes dangerous holes that have formed in the past several weeks. While temporary asphalt patches can be applied in the winter, road workers have to wait for the moisture that has seeped into the roads to unfreeze before they can permanently cap the potholes.
Driving on potholes, said Peluso, can knock wheels out of alignment, cause premature suspension wear, damage shocks and struts and dent rims.
If you see a pothole
Peluso said that if a driver hits a pothole and suspects some damage has been done, the first thing to do is call the police department and fill out an incident report. He said this will help drivers make claims with their insurance companies.
The same goes, he said, if a pedestrian falls into a pothole or twists his or her ankle or knee.
“Make sure the police are notified,” said Peluso. “It’s important to have a record of the accident.”
He said if there isn’t an accident, but a resident or a driver notices a dangerous pothole that needs filling, they should call the municipal garage at (201) 420-2385. He said the location of the pothole will be placed into a logbook and in most cases, the pothole will be filled the next day.
Spring roadwork
Also with warmer weather comes the list of annual roadway improvement projects, funded by the state Department of Transportation. The following are streets that will be repaved in the next three to six months. This also included new curbing and ADA-approved corners:
Fourth Street between Willow Avenue and Adams Street
10th Street between Hudson and Washington streets
Fifth Street between Bloomfield and Garden streets
Sixth Street between Hudson and River streets
11th Streets between Park Avenue and Washington Street
13th Street between Washington and Bloomfield streets
Seventh Street between Monroe and Madison streets.
Peluso added he has also been in contact with the county, which owns First Street, to pave portions of that road.