Pothole problem deep and wide in Amherst

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on March 28, 2008

On March 16, a bicyclist hit a pothole on Meadow Street and then hit the pavement, sustaining face and hand injuries that required a trip to the hospital.

On March 17, an angry Lincoln Avenue couple collected chunks of dislodged pothole-filling material from their lawn and plopped it on the Select Board's table during a meeting.

A series of potholes on West Street near Atkins Corner needed 16 tons of ashpalt and cost $1,620 for materials and police directing traffic when it was filled last week. It was about 50 feet long and covered one whole lane, according Matt Loven of the DPW.

Safety, expense

All over Amherst, cars are swerving to avoid potholes, creating safety hazards, and many motorists who plow through them too fast are confronting expensive repairs.

There's been a bumper crop of potholes this year, because of changing temperatures and deferred road maintenance, said Guilford Mooring, the public works superintendent.

"Every winter storm we had, it thawed a few days later and then we had rain," he said. "That's the worst thing for potholes."

There's also been a bumper crop of complaints to public officials. "People are discouraged with the conditions of the roads," said Town Manager Laurence Shaffer.

He has asked Mooring for a list of the highest-priority repaving projects, and said he plans to address the issue with the Select Board this summer. Often, falling behind on road maintenance because of tight budgets ends up costing more in the long run, Shaffer said.

"In the economic sense, it's you can pay me now or you can pay me later," he said.

In the last two weeks, public works crews have been going after the worst potholes, including Atkins Corner, Meadow Street, Pelham Road and North Pleasant Street as it goes through the University of Massachusetts, Mooring said. But Amherst doesn't receive nearly enough state highway money to properly maintain the roads, he said.

"We're at the point that if you don't like the condition of the roads, you need an infusion of money, and it will have to be our money," Mooring said.

He has a list of 17 roads that Department of Public Works crews could repair if the town borrowed $2 million, and another 11 roads that could be rebuilt with $1 million more, he said. The top priorities next year are likely to be North and South Pleasant streets and West Bay Road, he said.

In a recent national ranking of states' support for infrastructure, Massachusetts received a "C" grade from the Pew Center. "We're not putting enough money into our roads and we're not doing it efficiently," Mooring said.

Although motorists who drive on roads tend to want potholes fixed, some residents who live on the roads are happy that they discourage or slow down traffic.

Some of the loudest complaints Mooring has received are from Pelham residents about the condition of Pelham Road in Amherst, he said. But some residents of Dana Street said they can live with the potholes.

"They're the cheapest form of speed control you can get," said Select Board Chairman Gerry Weiss. Mooring jokingly referred to a huge pothole on Lincoln Avenue as "an inverted speed cushion."

But Phil Jackson, who has promoted traffic calming on Lincoln, said potholes are creating a traffic hazard there and he'd like to see them fixed.

"Inadvertent neglect is not really a policy," he said.

Nick Grabbe can be reached at ngrabbe@gazettenet.com.