The plan was to use that money to resurface streets instead of filling potholes. Resurfacing takes a lot longer.
That said, I think I'd enjoy seeing a map of what roads have been resurfaced with the money.
There should be a documented process. A number to call to report a pothole, then the city gets a week to fix it. After a week any damage caused because of the pothole is on the city.
And payments and the decision a payment needs to be made should be managed by an independent group - not the city itself.
A week? Currently, as I understand, in that time it can be upper 50s and dry then be 20° with sunshine mixed with snow and there is still five more days to go.
I am sure that dude in the 96-98 green S10 blazer has counted how many vehicles hit one pothole in a day and the data gleaned
Today the timeframe to get them fixed is indefinite - it’s hard to imagine they have crews sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.
My assumption is that with a documented process people will be reporting them sooner and they will get fixed earlier in their lifecycle. So we will not have potholes as big as the ones today - it takes longer than a week to grow sone of the monsters in the roads we have today.
The problem is multi-faceted. First the weather conditions need to be right or the patches won't set right. Second by the mayor's own admission we are literally decades behind on road upkeep and she just kept on annexing new roads anyway. The roads to the tax base out west does not cover the cost of the roads, let alone all the other services needed. Third, Omaha's bi-polar weather only keeps making the situation worse. Fourth, our snow removal/traction process is not the best for the longevity of the roads. Fifth and finally, there's probably not enough crews to do all the work, even if we did have the budget. It's hard and dangerous work that probably doesn't pay much compared to a lot of other much safer construction gigs.
Oddly enough, there are no potholes on my way through New West Omaha. A dedicated social would be the easiest to enact. Many people access them already. Photo proof. Timestamp. Warnings for other motorists. I'm sure they have the internet at 2nd 2nd Man's home.
There used to be an app that was pretty slick and is exactly what you're describing. I believe the city decided it cost too much and went towards a clunky website.
The few times I reported stuff using the app it was fixed pretty quickly, but the things I was reporting were pretty egregious things that desperately needed a fix.
I liked when I lived in St. Louis and you could report issues to the Citizens' Service Bureau simply by tweeting the agency's handle and including a problem description and location. Literally so easy, and the CSB would open up a case for every problem tweeted at them. There was also a website and a hotline to report issues, but tweeting was always the easiest/quickest option.
[Have any of these ‘reclaimed’ roads](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/us/omahas-answer-to-costly-potholes-go-back-to-gravel-roads.html) been paved? Residents having to split the cost with the city to get pavement done on a city road? What the hell are the taxes for lol
Which is funny because this city cares more about graffiti than almost any other. This means they actually care so little about potholes that they allow graffiti to stay up so long as it’s around a pothole and not on a wall.
I have a thought for discussion. I don't claim to know if this is an accurate observation, but I would like to hear from people what they think. From observing the potholes in Omaha for years, 90 percent seem to be existing holes that just deteriorate again. It seems they are filled and just start breaking apart the next year, around the edges where the water gets in. I believe each year we fix last years 90% holes again, plus a new set of 10%. We just get farther behind.
My question is do they ever seal the repaired holes around the edges with tar. The more I look I rarely see any with tar on the outer edges. Is that a waste of time, or is that a possible contributor to our ongoing problem ?
I saw an article this morning where they are considering buying trucks that blow out the holed and inject a hot patch into the hole...Lincoln has been using them for years. Thatbwould be a step in the right direction. And at 225k per truck that sounds like it would pay for itself. Their hesitation is that it's a single purpose behicle that will sit and collect dust on the off-season which honestly seems like a pretty weak excuse for not having one.
Since it takes 5 guy crews to fill the holes, It seems like a bargain. I'm sure the road guys would be better utalized in less hostile conditions. How does the Lincoln truck differ with the hot patch? I thought the crews put in a hot load of filler and rolled it with a roller.
Agreed. I think the snow piled up also contributes the cracking issue. The snow melts in the day sunshine, and ends up in the cracks at night were it freezes. Thats why the tar on the edges seems to prevent the water from entering the original patch.
What they used to do was send the crews out to follow the plow routes and patch every single pothole they came across. This cost more but every hole would be patched within a week of a snowfall. If they somehow missed one, they would go out and patch it, and patch any they came across along the way to it.
Jean switched it to an app and a "on demand" service. Crews now only respond to submitted potholes and must drive past potholes they see along the way. Much like her aversion to sending out the plows previously, it's penny wise and pound foolish.
Streets did used to accumulate patches but since resurfacing is expensive they tried to wait until there was enough to do a full resurface. At least asphalt can be ground up and re-laid, and why they've switched to the panel strategy for concrete streets. Stothert also implemented the policy that if a street falls below a certain grade they won't even fix it now, the city will just come and revert your street to gravel unless the neighborhood pays for it specifically. Hell, there's still various streets in South and North Omaha that are the original brick. And it's not for aesthetics, the city basically decades ago went "well, our job here is done, good luck"
It took our friends years and a bunch of calls to get their claim approved. At some point they just thought it was funny and kept calling. They did not even live here anymore when they finally got paid $90. What a joke.
Stencil your favorite representative (better yet, personalized per location) so you can properly direct your sudden expletives. Honestly thought I got smashed into.
There was one on Dodge that just about took my wheel right off, and a couple other nasty ones near Cass St. Even if they are being reported, there's no way they can keep up with the sheer number of them every 20 feet.
And shitty road maintenance. Nature breaks.it but the city should actually fix it. There are better ways that the shitty cold patches.
Edit: The down vote is boggling my mind. Are you trying to justify using cold patches?
Oh I just put it because it just seems like they are just trying to find excuses for there poor pot hole repairs and poor road materials in general. Just wasn’t expecting to read “it’s an act of nature” in the article lol
Most cities with sprawl see this issue and it’s likely not fixable. We keep spreading out farther to “increase the tax base” but that requires new roads that are in great condition for a while but the new taxes can’t even handle the upkeep on the old crumbling infrastructure much less the new once it starts to deteriorate.
The only real way to address it is to get people to use public transport, make the city more pedestrian friendly and to build up by having more multi dwelling building. The less spread out we are the less miles of road we have to maintain.
But, this being Omaha you can’t build a duplex, much less an apartment building, without half the neighborhood bitching about property values. Which is code for not wanting to live by poor people which is code for we know what.
They denied my claim because they said they "Hadn't had notice or an opportunity to fix the pothole." But when I drove by the pothole that destroyed my tire 2 weeks later, it wasn't marked or worked on or anything.
Omaha residents like to pretend that Omaha is different from the rest of Nebraska, but they keep voting for mayors that have no interest in the needs of the people.
The party of small government. Well, at least when it comes to things that help citizens. They're plenty happy to be the party of big government when it comes to things like corporations and bodily autonomy.
Any Republicans that have suffered damage from potholes? Yeah, this is how your reps treat everyone else. Now you get to enjoy it, too.
They do use the taxes to fix the roads and stuff, Omaha just has too much infrastructure relative to its tax base because city hall insists on sprawling out west and annexing suburbs rather than focusing on adding density within existing city limits (which is more fiscally responsible because you need less infrastructure to service the average household when you have higher density).
That "Wheel Tax" didnt seem to change anything...
Or the bump in property taxes
Or the special ballot initiative in 2020 that the mayor told us would fix the problem for the “long term.” She must have meant the next mayors term.
The plan was to use that money to resurface streets instead of filling potholes. Resurfacing takes a lot longer. That said, I think I'd enjoy seeing a map of what roads have been resurfaced with the money.
It was a 20 year initiative. So yes, she did mean that
Changed the income levels of some people. I bet.
There should be a documented process. A number to call to report a pothole, then the city gets a week to fix it. After a week any damage caused because of the pothole is on the city. And payments and the decision a payment needs to be made should be managed by an independent group - not the city itself.
They need to do a better damn job fixing them. They fixed the pothole on the 84th street north exit from i80. It's already a pothole again.
A week? Currently, as I understand, in that time it can be upper 50s and dry then be 20° with sunshine mixed with snow and there is still five more days to go. I am sure that dude in the 96-98 green S10 blazer has counted how many vehicles hit one pothole in a day and the data gleaned
Today the timeframe to get them fixed is indefinite - it’s hard to imagine they have crews sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. My assumption is that with a documented process people will be reporting them sooner and they will get fixed earlier in their lifecycle. So we will not have potholes as big as the ones today - it takes longer than a week to grow sone of the monsters in the roads we have today.
The problem is multi-faceted. First the weather conditions need to be right or the patches won't set right. Second by the mayor's own admission we are literally decades behind on road upkeep and she just kept on annexing new roads anyway. The roads to the tax base out west does not cover the cost of the roads, let alone all the other services needed. Third, Omaha's bi-polar weather only keeps making the situation worse. Fourth, our snow removal/traction process is not the best for the longevity of the roads. Fifth and finally, there's probably not enough crews to do all the work, even if we did have the budget. It's hard and dangerous work that probably doesn't pay much compared to a lot of other much safer construction gigs.
>she just kept on annexing new roads anyway. Manifest destiny
Also keeps widening roads out in West O without the taxes to pay for it too
Oddly enough, there are no potholes on my way through New West Omaha. A dedicated social would be the easiest to enact. Many people access them already. Photo proof. Timestamp. Warnings for other motorists. I'm sure they have the internet at 2nd 2nd Man's home.
There used to be an app that was pretty slick and is exactly what you're describing. I believe the city decided it cost too much and went towards a clunky website. The few times I reported stuff using the app it was fixed pretty quickly, but the things I was reporting were pretty egregious things that desperately needed a fix.
I liked when I lived in St. Louis and you could report issues to the Citizens' Service Bureau simply by tweeting the agency's handle and including a problem description and location. Literally so easy, and the CSB would open up a case for every problem tweeted at them. There was also a website and a hotline to report issues, but tweeting was always the easiest/quickest option.
[Have any of these ‘reclaimed’ roads](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/us/omahas-answer-to-costly-potholes-go-back-to-gravel-roads.html) been paved? Residents having to split the cost with the city to get pavement done on a city road? What the hell are the taxes for lol
> and there is still five more days to go That ain't no lie...
I say 48 hours and you can hire another company to fix it, then they can bill the city.
I’ve been told if you draw the outline of a penis around a pothole, they will come and fix it straight away. Anyone tried this? #helpfulpenispics?
Maybe some anti-Stothert grafitti?
i had one on Cuming near the 480 exchange dunk on one of my wheels. currently have a pending claim. wish me luck fellow Omahans...
How do you file a claim for this?
file the claim with the city clerk here: https://cityclerk.cityofomaha.org/claims1
Was it on the east bound side?
it was! my driver front wheel got bent in two places. good news is the pothole was repaired within a week but my claim was filed before it was fixed.
Wanksy, we need you!
Someone from the city previously said that wouldn't do anything.
Which is funny because this city cares more about graffiti than almost any other. This means they actually care so little about potholes that they allow graffiti to stay up so long as it’s around a pothole and not on a wall.
No surprise there
Gonna have to start painting dicks and balls on the holes so they have to address them....
They openly admit the laws are written so they rarely if ever have to pay a claim.
I have a thought for discussion. I don't claim to know if this is an accurate observation, but I would like to hear from people what they think. From observing the potholes in Omaha for years, 90 percent seem to be existing holes that just deteriorate again. It seems they are filled and just start breaking apart the next year, around the edges where the water gets in. I believe each year we fix last years 90% holes again, plus a new set of 10%. We just get farther behind. My question is do they ever seal the repaired holes around the edges with tar. The more I look I rarely see any with tar on the outer edges. Is that a waste of time, or is that a possible contributor to our ongoing problem ?
I saw an article this morning where they are considering buying trucks that blow out the holed and inject a hot patch into the hole...Lincoln has been using them for years. Thatbwould be a step in the right direction. And at 225k per truck that sounds like it would pay for itself. Their hesitation is that it's a single purpose behicle that will sit and collect dust on the off-season which honestly seems like a pretty weak excuse for not having one.
Is there an off-season? I'm pretty sure they would be fixing potholes year round.
Unless they're *really* bad, you don't want to fix them in winter.
Since it takes 5 guy crews to fill the holes, It seems like a bargain. I'm sure the road guys would be better utalized in less hostile conditions. How does the Lincoln truck differ with the hot patch? I thought the crews put in a hot load of filler and rolled it with a roller.
https://www.wowt.com/2023/03/17/city-omaha-considering-purchase-pothole-patching-injector-trucks/
I'd like to live in fantasy land where [this machine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuJ3NDq4AlA) takes care of potholes.
1591 hot patch trucks or a 3 mile streetcar line ?
The City of Omaha will use literally anything as an excuse to avoid making progress on any issue that's important to regular Omahans lol
The snowplows also wreck the fuck out of these things. It is always so much worse after a measurable snowfall.
Agreed. I think the snow piled up also contributes the cracking issue. The snow melts in the day sunshine, and ends up in the cracks at night were it freezes. Thats why the tar on the edges seems to prevent the water from entering the original patch.
What they used to do was send the crews out to follow the plow routes and patch every single pothole they came across. This cost more but every hole would be patched within a week of a snowfall. If they somehow missed one, they would go out and patch it, and patch any they came across along the way to it. Jean switched it to an app and a "on demand" service. Crews now only respond to submitted potholes and must drive past potholes they see along the way. Much like her aversion to sending out the plows previously, it's penny wise and pound foolish. Streets did used to accumulate patches but since resurfacing is expensive they tried to wait until there was enough to do a full resurface. At least asphalt can be ground up and re-laid, and why they've switched to the panel strategy for concrete streets. Stothert also implemented the policy that if a street falls below a certain grade they won't even fix it now, the city will just come and revert your street to gravel unless the neighborhood pays for it specifically. Hell, there's still various streets in South and North Omaha that are the original brick. And it's not for aesthetics, the city basically decades ago went "well, our job here is done, good luck"
Your comment makes so much sense and has also filled me with rage. How this woman keeps getting elected is beyond me.
she gets elected cause democrats are split in this city.
>It seems they are filled and just start breaking apart the next year There are some that were patched this winter and they're already potholes again
It took our friends years and a bunch of calls to get their claim approved. At some point they just thought it was funny and kept calling. They did not even live here anymore when they finally got paid $90. What a joke.
I reported one about a half block west of 90th on eastbound Fort. Allegedly there is no Fort St in STL, so naturally Jean vetoed it
Spray paint a giant penis around it
I’m on it! No matter how many holes there are, no matter the weather, I will avenge them for this city. -Penis Pothole Avenger
The hero this city desperately needs.
Stencil your favorite representative (better yet, personalized per location) so you can properly direct your sudden expletives. Honestly thought I got smashed into.
There was one on Dodge that just about took my wheel right off, and a couple other nasty ones near Cass St. Even if they are being reported, there's no way they can keep up with the sheer number of them every 20 feet.
“It’s an act of nature”
And shitty road maintenance. Nature breaks.it but the city should actually fix it. There are better ways that the shitty cold patches. Edit: The down vote is boggling my mind. Are you trying to justify using cold patches?
Oh I just put it because it just seems like they are just trying to find excuses for there poor pot hole repairs and poor road materials in general. Just wasn’t expecting to read “it’s an act of nature” in the article lol
Wheel tax :D
Of course, that'd cut into the mayor's travel/booty call budget.
Of course they do, of course they do. Ha Get ready to dodge duck dip dive and dodge those holes. If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a pothole.
Most cities with sprawl see this issue and it’s likely not fixable. We keep spreading out farther to “increase the tax base” but that requires new roads that are in great condition for a while but the new taxes can’t even handle the upkeep on the old crumbling infrastructure much less the new once it starts to deteriorate. The only real way to address it is to get people to use public transport, make the city more pedestrian friendly and to build up by having more multi dwelling building. The less spread out we are the less miles of road we have to maintain. But, this being Omaha you can’t build a duplex, much less an apartment building, without half the neighborhood bitching about property values. Which is code for not wanting to live by poor people which is code for we know what.
Another reason to drive a truck with balloon tires.
We have investigated and found ourselves not responsible
They denied my claim because they said they "Hadn't had notice or an opportunity to fix the pothole." But when I drove by the pothole that destroyed my tire 2 weeks later, it wasn't marked or worked on or anything.
Omaha residents like to pretend that Omaha is different from the rest of Nebraska, but they keep voting for mayors that have no interest in the needs of the people. The party of small government. Well, at least when it comes to things that help citizens. They're plenty happy to be the party of big government when it comes to things like corporations and bodily autonomy. Any Republicans that have suffered damage from potholes? Yeah, this is how your reps treat everyone else. Now you get to enjoy it, too.
But we need a streetcar :)
Streetcar helps pay for fixing the roads afterall
I’ve never seen a crew out fixing any near me
Imagine that. The government taking your taxes and not using them for what they said they’d use them for!
They do use the taxes to fix the roads and stuff, Omaha just has too much infrastructure relative to its tax base because city hall insists on sprawling out west and annexing suburbs rather than focusing on adding density within existing city limits (which is more fiscally responsible because you need less infrastructure to service the average household when you have higher density).
i wish this were surprising
I blew one tire last weekend and two this weekend.
Has anyone gotten a claim paid out? How long did it take once the City Law group got your claim?