Pothole trucks eliminate road-repair backlog, Rock Hill says

Two workers and a truck have, in seven months, been able to eliminate Rock Hill’s backlog on pothole repair, the city’s public works director said.

“We had over 250 potholes out there that hadn’t been touched” when the city put its dedicated pothole trucks on the road last October, Terrence Nealy said. “Now those have all been repaired.”

The truck – of which the city owns two, each operated by a two-man repair crew – is designed to respond quickly to pothole calls, without the larger crews and equipment that would have blocked traffic before.

Since their launch, the trucks have been so successful, Nealy says, the crews no longer have an outstanding list of potholes waiting.

“Now we only go out to what comes in (from residents) or what we see.”

The city estimates road crews have responded to around 900 potholes since the trucks hit the road and filled 169 utility cuts. On average, the crews will respond to 10 to 15 potholes per day, depending on the number of complaints the department receives and whether the workers are available to operate the truck. They strive to complete a work order within 24 hours of its being filed.

Now, the city is pouring an additional $300,000 into the city’s 2016-17 budget for road paving – boosting the total available to more than $1 million. Last year’s budget included $860,000 for road paving. If approved by the Rock Hill City Council, next year’s budget will include $1.16 million for road work.

“As long as we receive that extra $300,000, we can begin reducing the number of roads that are in poor condition,” Nealy said, estimating that 12 percent of city roads are in bad shape – or 20 miles out of close to 200 under city maintenance.

“With an additional $300,000,” he said, “we can begin chipping away at that.”

But Rock Hill’s pothole trucks are not just used to respond to dents in city streets. When the S.C. Department of Transportation is made aware of a pothole on a state-maintained road in the city, they might ask Rock Hill to dispatch the pothole truck rather than wait until their own crew can respond to it.

More than one in four streets the pothole truck has filled so far have been on state roads, 244 in total.

The pothole truck seems to be getting positive feedback from the community; many people have told Nealy they were surprised at how quickly the truck appeared after they called.

“They’re glad we can get there in such a timely manner,” he said. “So they seem to be very happy.”

This story was originally published May 11, 2016 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Pothole trucks eliminate road-repair backlog, Rock Hill says."