WILKES-BARRE — Maybe you’ve noticed that driving NEPA roads is kinda like training for the bobsled competition in the Olympics.
You swerve, you shake, you bounce.
All while trying to avoid those dreaded potholes.
This is not to blame anybody or complain — it’s a mere statement that is pothole season again, and they can wreak havoc on motorists every day.
Potholes are everywhere, and this year, there seem to be many more than ever before.
Municipalities of all sizes are challenged to keep up with the potholes, but these road hazards seem to multiply faster than rabbits.
The advice here is, be careful. Potholes can cause damage — expensive damage.
We see this every day — cars, trucks, buses, they all find the potholes. Driving along and … bang! You get jarred. Sometimes you lose a tire. Sometimes you need a wheel alignment. Sometimes your head hurts from hitting the roof of your car.
And in most instances, the expletives fly.
If you are super alert, you can swerve to avoid the pothole. It does happen — gold medal-winning driving, for sure. Just hope the oncoming vehicle in the pothole-free lane you swerve into is not texting.
Potholes are always on the municipal DPW to-do list. So if you see a pothole or hit one, report it. It’s the only recourse we have.
Apparently, in this high-tech world we live in, we can send people into space, we can cook food in a fraction of the time as we used to, and we can produce a phone that takes pictures, accesses the internet, and keeps us “connected” — yet we can’t find a way to fix potholes permanently.
A few years ago, we ran a story about four hubcaps that sat on the side of Conyngham Avenue for weeks — reminders that the vehicles they belonged to couldn’t avoid one of the largest potholes you’ll ever find, even by NEPA standards.
Such is the driving situation on the region’s roads, where at almost any moment a pothole can swallow almost any tire and wreak damage that easily could go beyond a lost hubcap.
PennDOT says potholes can form overnight and generally appear more when the spring thaw hits each year.
Hitting a pothole can throw off your wheel alignment, causing uneven tire wear and requiring them to be replaced more quickly. Potholes can also cause damage to your wheels, steering, and suspension. Cha-ching!
When you fail to see a pothole and your car finds it, the results can be frightening, infuriating, and, yes, expensive.
I have seen cars slam into a pothole and coffee splash everywhere inside the vehicle. This is usually accompanied by socially unacceptable language and a trip to the car wash to vacuum up the mess as soon as you can.
A few years ago, I suggested we consider an “Adopt-A-Pothole” program. We have an “Adopt-A-Highway” program, but what good is it if it is riddled with potholes?
So while I totally support keeping our roads and highways litter-free, I also support keeping them pothole-free.
But can it be done?
Recent evidence, in fact, history, shows that keeping potholes to a minimum has been difficult, if not impossible. Yeah, I know, winter thaw, roads weaken, holes appear. I’m really tired of that same old song.
According to PennDOT, the costs of dealing with litter and illegal dumping are quite high for communities as well, but are often obscured because they are dispersed across various government departments, community-based organizations, and volunteer groups.
While not littering in the first place is the best scenario, PennDOT says cleanups are critical, and in a sense serve as a preventative function through engaging the community around the littering issue, and simply because people are less likely to litter in an area that is kept free of trash.
The program appears to be on the right track, and volunteers are doing a terrific job to stay ahead of the problem.
So the Adopt-a-Highway program is working.
Should we now consider an Adopt-a-Pothole program?
Of course not. We can’t expect volunteers picking up litter to also fill in potholes.
So we do what we can — we report every pothole we find.
How to report potholes
PennDOT: Call 1-800-FIX-ROAD (1-800-349-7623).
Luzerne County: Call 570-825-1604 or email [email protected].
Wilkes-Barre City: Call 570-208-4237.