CINCINNATI — The City of Cincinnati doubled down on road repairs in East Price Hill Monday during a “pothole blitz.”
“These roads are pretty old and been beat up,” said Billy Johnson, who lives on Price Avenue. “There's been times where I've hit a pothole so deep that I literally thought my tire was gonna come off.”
A few years ago, Darlene Gilkey’s son hit a big pothole in East Price Hill.
“There was a pothole on here on Warsaw,” she said. “It actually knocked off his brake line.”
The city has marked more than 160 pothole repairs in East Price Hill as “closed” in 2023, according to city data. City officials said 5,000 potholes have been fixed across the city since January 1.
“It seems like they're always filling up potholes,” Gilkey said. “It seems like they smooth over it and then all of a sudden it just peels right back up.”
Some say filling potholes is a quick fix.
Cincinnati has fallen short of repaving goals in recent years. In 2021, the city’s Department of Transportation and Engineering set a goal of replacing 100 lane miles but only fixed 42 lane miles. The department maintains roughly 2,900 lane miles throughout the city.
“The fiscal challenges continued to hamper our ability to hit our goal,” Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval said Monday.
Pureval pushed the sale of the Cincinnati Southern Railway as a way to bring more money in.
“Taking our budgeted amount of money that we get from the railroad from $25 to conservatively $50-70 million will help us achieve our goal of those road miles and also continue to prioritize infrastructure,” he said.
While Price Avenue might eventually need to be fully repaved, Johnson is happy some progress is being made.
“At least at least something is being done,” he said.
The city urged residents to report potholes to ensure crews can come to fill them. You can report potholes by calling 311, visiting the 311 website or downloading the 311 Cincy mobile app.
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