Potholes Forming On Alabama Highways While ALDOT Deals With Tough Weather
By: Stephen Crews
Updated: February 9, 2011
A snowy and icy winter has made for treacherous travel and the Alabama Department of Transportation has been so busy keeping roads clear it's not getting to normal business. That means, more potholes and other hazards.
Potholes are getting wider and deeper across most of the interstates around our area. And with only 50 maintenance workers trying to cover all of Jefferson County the only thing they're able to focus on right now is the next round of arctic blasts.
"Every day they spend dealing with snow and ice is another day that we're not doing other things that need to be done," Brian Davis, Alabama Department of Transportation said.
Hundreds of potholes, broken guardrails, signs and reflective markers: all problems left unattended while ALDOT crews tackle the tough winter.
"We're getting worn out with these events," Davis said. "We take them very seriously and we do the best we can with the limited crew size we have."
Jefferson County drivers tell us this winter, it's been a bumpy ride.
"You can hit some of these potholes and they'll yank your car over into the other lane so you really have to watch what you're doing. It's really tearing people's cars up," Nicholas Jones, a Jefferson County driver said.
"It's the same potholes since the summertime," Rashad Hamby, a Jefferson County driver said." Let's fix them."
"Of course there's always potential danger of tearing up your vehicle and things of that sort but we have to be cautious and careful on the highways," Calvin Shears, a Jefferson County driver said.
ALDOT says Interstate 65 between 459 and 31 in Vestavia is the worst section in the county. Lately, it hasn't been able to make much needed repairs because of this wet and icy winter. ALDOT says it wants drivers to know: waiting for the ice to clear and pothole repairs may be frustrating, but Alabama isn't equipped to handle harsh winters like northern states are.
"So very often, we don't buy what they buy," Davis said. "We don't have the equipment they have because we don't get those kind of events down here. We try to be very frugal with tax dollars."
Just a couple of hours ago, ALDOT crews began surveying interstates and bridges. They've been loading up the trucks all day long. Road crews say they're in place, ready to go, in case any type of precipitation develops overnight.
