LOCKPORT, N.Y. (WKBW) — The City of Lockport Department of Public Works has begun hot patching potholes, as Niagara County asphalt plants open for the season.
Randy Szymanski and his team of Lockport DPW workers were hard at work filling the potholes. I joined them on East Avenue, where the crew estimated they used roughly six tons of asphalt just on Tuesday alone.
"As long as we don't plow anymore, then [the hot patches] will stay," Szymanski said.
"The deep freeze we had, it did a bad number on our roads, unfortunately," DPW superintendent Clayton Dimmick said.
After a cold winter of plows beating the pavement and temporary fixes to roads, Dimmick's crews are ready for more permanent fixes.
"Finally, got into some hot mix last week, using the Niagara Falls plant because they opened earlier than our Lockport plant, [which opened Tuesday]," Dimmick said.
WATCH: 'Will be a solid month': Lockport crews begin hot patch work on potholes
Q: “How dependent are you guys on the asphalt plants?”
Dimmick: “We depend on them 100%.”
Dimmick tells me DPW crews will be on the roads every day, but he's asking for patience because they've got a lot of roads to patch up.
"It will be a solid month of two or three crews out there to get through the whole city," Dimmick said.
Q: “People often say, ‘Why haven’t you gotten out sooner?’, so why haven’t you?”
Dimmick: “A lot of it is weather permitting. We can’t put a hot patch down in the rain, and there’s other things that have come up. We’ve had multiple water main breaks. We’re out there working on sewer main collapses. We’ve had a few good windstorms that have brought trees down.”
If you want to report a pothole in Lockport that you don't believe the DPW knows, you can call Dimmick's office at (716) 954-1990.
And drivers in the City of Tonawanda know this feeling all too well, hitting potholes that seem to come back as quickly as they’re patched. You can learn more online here.
