City of Oakland hosts 'pothole blitz' after damaging winter storms
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- The City of Oakland held its first event on Monday to kick off "One Oakland Spring Clean" week, part of its initiative to clean up the city ahead of Earth Day.
Monday's focus was kicking off what the city is calling a "pothole blitz" to attend to the "most egregious of all potholes" city-wide.
This comes after repeat atmospheric rivers drenched the Bay Area at the start of the year, leaving behind pothole, after pothole, after pothole in Oakland.
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"From December to March 1st, we were unable to implement any significant repair to the roadway infrastructure and so that's a long period of time of when our crews were not able to fulfil basic repair needs," Fred Kelly, the Director of Oakland Department of Transportation said.
Kelly says because it finally stopped raining, his crews got to work at the start of March, using funds from tax Measure KK and Measure U.
"We are filling more potholes, more so than ever before," Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said. "2,700 potholes have been filled since March 1st."
And while crews are making a significant dent in the number of repairs to be made in East Oakland, many people ABC7 spoke with said, they've got their work cut out for them.
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"That's not enough! There's 2,700 on this street I'm sure!" George Elnecio, a tire tech at Alex and Angels Tires said.
Elnecio says while potholes have been great for business, the damage has been much more than just tires, meaning more money spent on repairs.
"And the issues, it goes beyond the tire, I've had radiators cracked, the suspensions, they get misaligned," he said. "We get it so we try to be a little flexible and help the people and just kind of reduce the prices, try to compete with a lot of the bigger companies."
And he's noticing more customers have been filing claims with the city, to have them foot the repair bill.
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"They make sure they get the receipts, they take pictures, they get all the documents and I mean they have to, it's something that we pay our taxes for, so these streets should be drivable without any hazardous conditions," he said.
That's why city officials are encouraging anyone who sees a pothole in Oakland to be proactive and report it right away to OAK 311, amid this 'pothole blitz.'
"Thank you to the City of Oakland for fixing our potholes!" Raquel Lopez, an East Oakland resident said.
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