And North Oakland’s worst pothole is…
on May 4, 2011
After a week of voting on the 16 top offenders, 198 votes have been tallied and you decided which pothole was the best of the worst, the most unholy of the holey: Telegraph Avenue near the Highway 24 overpass. This section of road has defiantly won by a landslide of 91 votes, or 46 percent of those cast.
Second place went to Lakeshore Avenue under the 580 freeway, with 20 votes (or 10 percent of the tally), and third place to 37th Street between Telegraph and Webster, with 15 votes (or 8 percent).
Potholes begin as cracks in the surface of a street. As rain and water seep in, the cracks grow into depressions and holes. Cars pounding on the pavement add to street deterioration—so busier streets, like this stretch of Telegraph, tend to break down more quickly. That’s why many of your nominations included highway entrances and major intersections.
Telegraph Avenue from 55th Street up two blocks to Aileen Street is riddled with potholes and cracks on both sides of the street. Not only is it a bumpy ride for cars, it’s also known as a nemesis for cyclists because the majority of the potholes are exactly where bikers need to ride to stay out of car traffic.
The monster pothole in this zone is in the right lane of the northbound side of the street where cars turn onto Highway 24. Here, a cluster of small deep craters combine to make one behemoth.
“It’s not one of the worst spots but it’s heavily traveled and it’s a main arterial spot,” said Public Works Assistant Director David Ferguson. “It’s typical of other spots throughout the city.”
The good news is that this beast has been vanquished. This pothole caught the attention of Public Works and was filled during the first week of the pothole repair blitz. The cluster of depressions in this monster pothole area have been filled in and smoothed over. Ferguson said that Public Works crews will continue filling potholes on upper Telegraph throughout the summer.
The Public Works pothole blitz is going on for two and a half more weeks. If your pothole hasn’t been patched, call Public Works and request a repair at 510-615-5566 or go online to www.OaklandPW.com.
1 Comments
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For these particular potholes, in this high volume traffic street, they were present for an extraordinary time and not repaired. Remind me of the potholes that were present at Broadway when one enters east bound Highway 24. Those were there a long time too even though the road gets huge traffic volume.