Amount Of Potholes In NYC Streets Halved As City Spends $1.6 Billion, Mayor Says

NEW YORK, NY – The streets of New York City are less riddled with potholes after a $1.6 billion push to fill them, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday. The massive spend meant there were only 207,306 tire-smashing craters this year.

That's a 50 percent cut to the 444,835 holes that dotted the roads in 2014 when de Blasio took office, he said. Since then, 4,500 miles of roadway have been resurfaced out of the city's total 19,000.

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The mayor made the announcement standing beside a Department of Transportation paving crew that was working in The Bronx.

"When we took office in 2014, a drive down many city streets could be a bone-rattling experience," he said.

"Thanks to the hard wrk of DOT crews, rides are smoother everywhere – on major roads like the FDR Drive to smaller residential streets."

In 2015, the mayor announced a ten year, $1.6 billion program to resurface roads all over the city.

The city combined Friday's event with an advertising campaign designed to encourage safe driving around DOT work zones.

Upcoming projects include repaving of West 96th Street from Central Park West to Riverside Drive, Fifth Avenue between Flatbush and Prospect avenues in Brooklyn and Union Street between Northern Boulevard and 31st Road in Queens.

Anybody seeing potholes should report them by calling 311, the city said.

Lead image via City of New York/YouTube