Anyone driving around New Rochelle these days can tell you the roads are a complete mess. After 9 snow, sleet and ice storms the City is running out of places to push the show. The City is down to 100 tons of salt when it needs 200 to 600 tons for a single storm. And lately massive potholes have sprung up throughout the City, a preview what we can expect this spring. There is no good solution to potholes at this time of year so the City is reduced to triage, using cold patch to fill on holes in the worst effected area.
Cold Patch (Poly Pave is the industry name) is “made with a Latex Modified Base Asphalt. It is an emergency cold applied asphalt which is used mainly in the winter months when production of hot mix asphalt is not feasible. It is used for pothole patching only; it cannot be used for paving an entire street. Cold Patch is a pliable material that has enough density to remain in the pothole when applied. In the summer, when exposed to the heat, it forms a solid, permanent patch.”
Folks in the DPW note that as there is often water in the pothole, cold patch may be pushed out of the pothole after repeated freezing and warming of the ice/water mix underneath making cold patching a less than optimal and often temporary solution. The problem is there is no better alternative so it is either cold patch or more and bigger holes.
Given the confluence of events this winter, residents are going to have to adapt to a new reality where roads are narrowed, parking spaces are reduced, road surfaces are coated with ice and snow and an axel-wrecking pothole may lurk around every bend. Drivers should adjust accordingly — drive carefully, do not tailgate, do not accelerate going into a turn and pay attention at all times to the road surface conditions.
If you wish to report a problem, note that we have partnered with SeeClickFix.com, a service that allows residents to report things they see and would like fixed such as potholes, broken traffic lights, damaged street signs and other non-emergency issues. Looks for the SeeClickFix.com widget along the right column of this web site.
If you like to become a SeeClickFix Reporter and have a smart phone consider downloading one of their new mobile apps for iPhone, Android or Blackberry so when you see something you want to report you can just click on the app and report in seconds.
Among those watching SeeClickFix is Mayor Bramson. Maybe someday City Manager Chuck Strome will assign someone from his staff to monitor SeeClickFix as well.
Sun Haven Circle snowplowing
Why do the City plows CONTINUALLY plow around the Sunhaven Circle and BLOCK IN 4 side streets? Why can’t they angle the plow so it moves the snow towards the center circle? I was once told, after yelling at the plow driver, that the plows cannot be angled- WHAT??? I replied, “Then come in the wrong way and plow the snow towards the circle!”
It’s bad enough that the Harding Drive dead-end NEVER gets plowed, but to then have to try and make it over a 3′ snow mound after diging out your car for an hour just isn’t fair. Thank God we have a neighbor on the block who plows the street for us. Is their anyway to charge the City for snow plowing? I can get a petition started with all the neighbors to sign it! Gotta love this City!
NRDPW & Bromson fail New Rochelle residents!
It’s a sad commentary on the current state of affairs in that cesspool called City Hall, when they can’t even effectively plow our dilapated streets in an ice storm.
They rather dive around in city trucks creating more potholes then fixing them. Case in point, my neighborhood of Larchmont Woods, was totally forgotten on streets such as Woodlawn Ave, Kingsbury, Maywood, Mullberry & Mountain Ave.
Mountan Ave provides a clear study in how Larchmont & the Town of Mamaroneck take the roll of providing their residents with plowed streets. All one needs to do is drive from the Western end of Mountain Ave to the Eastern side, which ends at the corner of Chatsworth Ave in Larchmont, a gaze in amazement.
New Rochelle side, snow mounds left by the DPW, block the street so one has to swerve left to right in order to pass. Hoping that you don’t get hit by on coming cars as you can’t see and it’s one lane of roadway. Then add ice and you’re really having problems.
As soon as you hit the town line, it changes to nicely plowed streets, were one can drive safely. It’s so bad in New Rochelle, that it’s just laughable, but not really.
I even had my cab driver comment on how shitty the roads were in NR as opposed to Larchmont. I said you haven’t seen nothing. Try driving on Pinewood Blvd or Forest Ave into Larchmont! Look like a bombed out roadway you’d find in a war zone.
Time for residents to demand that our City do what they were elected to do and that we give our hard earned tax dollars for them to do. Serve the resident needs of this City, rather then lining their pockets with patronage dollars, and nothing getting done…
Potholes
There so big on main st. that i can see the water in long island sound. At main and north it looks like a shelling took place. Help us Noam!! Funny your picture shows the dpw crews on pinebrook blvd.Does’nt Noam our mayor live on that street.HUM
Favored contractors receive Lion’s share of snow removal money
NR DPW patches potholes while private contractors complete snow removal. It’s time preferred contractors (Bulfamante) are kicked to the curb. You can’t move this snow and ice with Bob Cats and gardening trucks. You need front end loaders and ten wheel dumps at least. Hopefully the temper tantrum he threw in City Hall will cost him in the future and New Rochelle will have adequate snow removal.
Favorite contractors
Why not put it out to bid each year using unit prices for labor and equipment?
Driving down Grove Ave. 3
Driving down Grove Ave. 3 days ago I couldn’t help but notice a mountain of snow that was piled near the intersection of Webster Ave. in front of a certain contractor’s office & equipment yard. It was piled so high that only a loader could have placed it so. Last night I noticed that this pile was removed.Was this pile on the City’s list to be removed? Was it taken to the City’s snow dump area on Beechwood Ave.? It was the only area on Grove Ave. that was free of snow.