New Jersey transportation officials say they expect to have to repair nearly twice the average number of potholes this year after a challenging winter season that has ripped up roads across the state.
With the busiest pothole repair season just beginning, New Jersey Department of Transportation crews has already repaired more than 125,000 potholes in fiscal year 2015, which stretches back to July 1. The DOT expects to repair about 300,000 potholes in all, at a cost of $1 million more than normal.
Typically, the DOT repairs about 180,000 potholes per year.
The town of Lakewood has such a bad pothole problem it will rent a so-called pothole-killer machine next week to help patch up the roads. The state DOT is deploying 13 of those trucks, which heat a mix of asphalt and gravel before injecting the mixture into the pothole, across roads well into April, longer than normal.
In general, crews will try to limit their daytime work hours to 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and try to avoid working in travel lanes during peak travel times, officials said. But the DOT may close travel lanes on some highways, including during rush hour, in order to address priority repairs right away.
