Fixing potholes is a pricey task for counties, towns and villages. But in Nassau, they're looking at a long-term solution to keeping roadways smooth.
In Nassau, there are more than 1,500 road miles. And since pothole repairs began six weeks ago, County Executive Laura Curran says the team has filled over 11,000 potholes.
Nassau County allocates nearly $2 million for its snow budget every year, including money for salt and asphalt for potholes. The county says so far this winter, more than $35,000 has been spent to patch potholes, and we're not in the clear yet.
"We're still in March, if we get a lot of thaws and freezes, that triggers the potholes over and over again," says Nassau Public Works Commissioner Ken Arnold.
But since repairing a pothole is only a temporary fix, Nassau County announced that starting next week, they're launching a larger road resurfacing program. It'll have a price tag of $35 million.
"For this year, 2021, we have a goal of resurfacing 150 lane miles, that's a $35 million investment," says Curran. "150 lane miles was our goal for 2020, but we surpassed that last year with 172 lane miles paved."
On the state side, over the previous and current fiscal year, New York has spent more than $110 million resurfacing the state roads in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
A Suffolk County spokesman says they have $7 million for general road resurfacing projects this year. They say all potholes on county roads reported to 311 are filled and addressed within 48 hours.