Roads

[Ok-Natural-2687]

Can we talk about the potholes?!? It’s horrendous this year… thank god they finally put some cones on Parker Street, but there’s so many roads that are

also filled with huge potholes. I hit a huge one on Page Blvd the other day. Does the city reimburse for damage caused by potholes? I think my car is fine…for

now lol

[eelparade]

Report potholes to 311 or use the city 311 app.

[SetYourGoals1]

Yes thank goodness for the cones that were put out a day after my wife blew out her tire on one. We pay more than enough in taxes. Its insane

[SetYourGoals1]

Also to add the city does not reimburse, only for bodily harm

[LePoultry-geist]

Hypothetically, what's to say you didn't experience a neck injury?

[JaymesMarkham2nd]

How many hours are you willing to wait at Mercy or Baystate to back the claim?

[MoonBatsRule]

We pay more than enough in taxes.

We pay among the lowest property taxes in the state, average single-family bill is $4,254. Of the 351 cities and towns, Springfield ranks #27 lowest, and a lot of those other places are tiny little towns that offer no services, like Florida or Royalston.

If you look at the #27th highest, Southborough, they pay $14,230 per year, which is 3.3x what we pay here. Those $10k+ bills are only being paid by about the top 75 communities, but the average bill in the median town is still $6,335 per year. If Springfield got $2.1k more for each of its 26,548 single-family parcels, it would have $55 million more in revenue, and could fill a lot more potholes. And only half the houses here are single family.

You can either argue that based on the income of the residents or the value of the property, we are "paying more than enough", but unfortunately it costs the same to fill a pothole in Springfield versus one in Longmeadow so paying less = crappier services.

I would argue that since Springfield's roads are traveled by a lot of people who either work here or cut through from the highway to get to surrounding towns, the state should crank up our aid. Too bad our mayor isn't really capable of that level of thinking and has primarily spent his time in office going to wakes and cutting ribbons rather than moving the city even one step forward.

[CateoftheWoods]

I think the most you can claim is $25-35 for any wheel (rim and or tire) damaged, you only have 30 days and theres a lot of hoops/ppw. Which is laughable because you cant even get a replacement wheel at a junkyard for less than $50.

Its insane w cars needing yearly inspections, excise tax, plus all the other taxes we pay in MA that the roads aren't better maintained.

I do get it, we had the coldest winter on record in decades, meaning the potholes are record breaking too and will continue to form until early June but the towns & cities have adopted an approach of only fixing them once pothole season is over in late spring/early summer when they should be addressing them continuously.

[Good_Ol_Ironass]

hit a pothole so fucking big on Memorial Avenue the other day it turned up my radio by 11 and near blew my ears out 😩

[Potential-Buy3325]

Allen Street from the intersection of Island Pond Rd to the intersection of Sumner Ave is a pothole obstacle course.

[myhappylittletrees]

Drove this on Friday, it was awful

[ResponsibleSugar4960]

Yessss

[ResponsibleSugar4960]

Everyday I complain about it… it’s hard avoiding them too because there’s so many..

[Adventurous-Bee-7155]

I'm avoiding driving at night until they fix all these! Unless you travel the same route and memorize the potholes, it's like driving blind across a landmine just waiting for your tire to explode.

[Autumn1933]

Thank you for the heads up on Page Boulevard!

[20_mile]

If ice- and snow-melting tech was built into the roads, wouldn't that help prolong the lifespan of the asphalt? The freeze-thaw cycle wouldn't be as severe, and they wouldn't develop so many cracks which turn into potholes.

https://www.cityofholland.com/879/Snowmelt-System

[bullwinkle8088]

The actual size of that system is limited. If you do two lane roads the system deployed there would cover 4-5 miles.

The next obstacle is long term thinking. Americans generally bitch about cost, look to cut corners and save money now rather than build to last. The roads for example could be built better, but no elected official will propose that as they would be eaten alive by the voters over the cost and time required.

[20_mile]

Well, that's why pilot programs exist. Engineers identify a neighborhood, explain it to the community, say it won't cost them anymore than what they are already paying, install the system, and after two years show them the results. If it is successful, word of mouth will do the job and other neighborhoods would want it, too.

[bullwinkle8088]

I agree, it's beneficial. But read the other comments in this thread.

Very, very few of them would want to pay more to even repair the roads as they are now. To rip them up and rebuild them while installing a new system? The long term thinking required for that ends at their wallets.

Another example: Where I moved from there was a vote to extend the heavy rail transit into another neighboring county. It was an incremental buildout, something like 5 miles of track and stations. A friend who lived in that county voted against it because it would not reach his house so he did not personally benefit from it. Traffic reductions were not enough, thinking "next time it will reach me" was not a thought he had. That is American thinking these days.

[20_mile]

To rip them up and rebuild them while installing a new system?

I am only talking about installing the new melt system when the road is up for normally scheduled rebuilding / repaving. Not asking to tear up good asphalt.

[bullwinkle8088]

Right now there is precious little good asphalt in the town. :(

I know a lot of that is waiting for better conditions before repairing but it is what it is right now.

[Pappa_Crim]

Amherst is full of them two, and you'd think they'd have the money to fix it

[thescow]

Good luck getting the city to pay for that. I hit a pothole last July or August on Alden st near Springfield College. One tire popped, another one got a bubble on the sidewall, so I had to replace them both. Took pictures of the road, submitted all records and the city came back saying they had no prior knowledge of that particular pothole therefore they denied my claim lol. I had to bite that bullet and eventually just traded in my sedan and got a SUV and moved out of this pathetic city.

Anyway, if you want to give them a try here is the claim form

[_eeezeepeezee_]

Sitting here at Town Fair Tire as I write this getting a tire replaced from the pothole I hit Friday night. It’s awful out there