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Residents raise concerns over potholes on secondary streets

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INDIANAPOLIS — They're a nuisance, dangerous and damage your car. You report a pothole, and hopefully, the city comes to fill it.

Neighbors who live off Wicker Road, just off State Road 37, said they have reported the potholes for two years.

"I have just been waiting for them to come and fill them up, but that just hasn't happened yet," Brett Sayers said.

One neighbor said she's worried someone is going to be killed and added there are accidents or close calls every day.

The pothole viewer, on the Mayor's action center website, shows several potholes on that road, indicating that neighbors have made requests.

Indianapolis officials said they receive calls from all over the county, and they have to prioritize the reports starting with the major thoroughfares.

"Each day, pothole-filling crews are given a starting location to begin work, and then they address all potholes along a given road segment. As we still are in the beginning of the season, crews continue to focus on major thoroughfares which carry emergency vehicles and the largest volumes of traffic across the city. As we shift to the mid-and-later season, the strategy will shift to include more secondary streets and residential streets (which traditionally see less traffic and slower speeds). Efforts will see crews continue to work on thoroughfares, but then also addressing reported potholes on local roads nearby. This demonstrates the direct connection between the reported locations of potholes and the work plan for the crew. Our crews worked down total pothole requests to a very low number by the end of last season. So, it’s very likely they hit Wicker Road at some point last year, if not multiple times. Certainly, however, each new season (particularly the winter/spring) brings more deterioration. We continue to recommend that residents report all potholes to the Mayor’s Action Center if they’ve been filled before and have reopened."
Indianapolis Department of Public Works

"Traffic literally comes to a stop," Michael Wendel said. "We either stop or we try to navigate and try not to hit each other."

Indy DPW crews have filled over 147,000 potholes so far in 2022.