Long Island Contractors' Association pushes for better pothole prevention plan
DIX HILLS, N.Y. -- It is pothole season, meaning it is the time of year you will begin to see road crews out fixing the damage caused by winter.
There is no reprieve for nerve-frayed drivers. The lack of snow this winter does not mean a lack of potholes.
Potholes are first formed by cracks from heavy vehicles. Water gets into the cracks and then freezes and thaws. The cycle continues over and over, even in a mild winter.
"Heavy truck traffic, that just breaks that pavement up at the surface, continues to crumble it and voila, you've got a pothole," said John Rondinaro, a pavement consultant for New York Construction Materials Association.
"Very difficult region to cause pothole problems," said Dr. Ping Liu, with Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University.
Liu, a climate expert, has tracked more freeze-thaw cycle days on Long Island, because it's surrounded by water, than New York City and even colder climates.
The Long Island Contractors' Association is pushing for a better plan statewide to keep potholes from forming in the first place. They say all this asphalt should be repaving roads on a set schedule every 10-12 years.
"What they have done is they've looked for pavement conditions and then they go to fight for the money, but if the money is not available for the bad economic year, then it doesn't happen ... and then the roads deteriorate," said Marc Herbst, with the Long Island Contractors' Association.
READ MORE: New York completes $80 million project to fix potholes on Long Island Expressway
Gov. Kathy Hochul has prioritized repaving; the Long Island Expressway was just resurfaced, and another $100 million is earmarked statewide for roads ravaged by weather. Some of the money is for Long Island's crumbling parkways, but local officials are also crying out for local road funding.
"There's roads that I have been to that haven't been paved since 1986. It's, to me, it's just unacceptable," said Andrew Sorrentino, Jr., Huntington highway superintendent.
Heavily traveled roads can start crumbling in as few as five years. It took 18 years for the L.I.E. to get its recent makeover.
Long Island's parkway repaving, including the northern state, will begin in the fall.
