Vacca Starts Pothole ‘Lookout’

Some streets around the community look more like the surface of the moon, leaving the city scrambling to fill as many potholes as possible.

With extreme weather conditions and freezing roadways, more potholes are opening up on troubled streets like Middletown Road between Mayflower and Westchester avenues, and Prentiss Avenue at Throgs Neck Expressway, which have become bumpy places for motorists.

Things got so torturous that Councilman Jimmy Vacca conducted a driving tour of his district on Sunday, February 6, what he termed a “pothole patrol,” and identified troubled locations on streets in Throggs Neck, Pelham Bay and Pelham Parkway.

Conditions were so bad on part of Middletown Road, which does not have a concrete road base, that Vacca called the city Department of Transportation on the spot to order an emergency repair.

“Whether the potholes stay filled because of the overall condition of the road is another story,” Vacca said. “This is pothole season, and with the particularly brutal storms we have had, we need to be especially vigilant with our driving.”

Vacca wants his constituents to know that if their car is damaged by a pothole, they can file a claim with NYC Comptroller’s John Liu’s office, and that forms are available on nyc.gov/finance or at his office.

“If your car is damaged by a pothole on a city street, you can file a claim with the comptrollers office, but the comptroller must have prior notice that if there is a pothole at the location where your car was damaged,” Vacca said. “That is why I am urging all city residents to call 311 when they see a pothole, even if you do not drive into it.”

People will be doing their neighbors a favor if they report potholes to 311 or at nyc.gov so that there will be a record of the pothole if and when their neighbors need to file a claim.

“The comptrollers office need the prior notification, and 311 will be giving it to them,” Vacca said. “When a call is made, identification numbers that are given should be kept.”