Houston Potholes Tracker
Next Day Pothole Repair Rate Hits 96%
January 13, 2016 -- The formal rollout of Mayor Sylvester Turner’s pothole initiative is still a week away, but the City has already achieved an impressive one-day repair rate of nearly ninety-six percent for potholes reported to the City’s 311 Help and Information line.
In his inaugural address, Mayor Turner announced that potholes reported to the City’s 311 Help and Information line will be assessed and addressed by the next business day. In the week since that announcement, pothole reports to 311 have skyrocketed from a daily average of 22 to more than 100 a day. 96 percent of those that are actual potholes are being assessed and repaired by the next business day.
“This is a priority for my administration,” said Mayor Turner. “The numbers at this early stage of the effort are impressive. We have streamlined operations and our departments are working better together as a team. The payoff is an increased performance level that our residents not only expect, but also deserve.”
Between January 4, 2016, and midnight on January 11, 2016, a total of 550 pothole service requests were received by 311. Of these requests, 316 were potholes and were repaired by the next business day. The rest were not potholes, were duplicate requests, posed no safety hazard or were the responsibility of the Texas Department of Transportation or another agency. During the same time period, the City proactively assessed and repaired 1,246 additional potholes.
Based on the data gathered during this “soft launch” period, it is believed this more ambitious pothole repair program can be accomplished within the existing budget through the end of the current fiscal year in June.
The City has expanded its definition of a pothole from four square feet or smaller to street conditions that are approximately 5 feet across or up to 25 square feet. All potholes will be repaired by the next business day, unless it is too cold for the asphalt to adhere to the surface, the road is wet or materials and equipment are not available. Service requests that turn out not to be potholes will be placed on a priority report to the mayor that includes the proposed action and timeline.
The formal rollout of the program will include the debut of a new website, www.houstonpotholes.org, as well as an automated customer notification process that will be managed by the Mayor’s Citizens Assistance Office. Every constituent reporting a pothole will be contacted by email or phone about the status of their request.
Residents do not need to wait until the formal rollout next week to report potholes. Download the 311 app available from iTunes and Google, call 311 or visit www.houstontx.gov/311.
