District's "Potholepalooza" hits halfway point

Potholepalooza is heating up. The District's Department of Transportation is only halfway through its month long citywide repair campaign and already has reportedly fixed over 3000 potholes.

DDOT's normal response time for a pothole repair is within 72 hours, but during Potholepalooza it's within 48 hours. And since the start of the campaign March 11, the orders came flooding in.

"Early on, we got 70 service requests in a single day, but now about a dozen people are contacting us each day." says DDOT's acting Director Gabe Klein. "We would like to think that means we have filled all the potholes, but we know that is not the case, and we hope people will continue to call, email and text us."

DDOT crews are averaging 280 repairs each working day and repaired a total 3,366 potholes throughout the city's 8 wards.

DDOT will not be deterred.

"Even the steady rain that soaked the area on Thursday didn't slow the progress," according to a DDOT press release, "DDOT's crews and spray patch trucks braved the elements and filled 370 potholes."

To report a pothole, residents and commuters can contact DDOT in a variety of ways:

• 1) call the Mayor's Call Center at 311
• 2) use the On-line Service Request Center
• 3) text message or Tweet to twitter.com/DDOTDC
• 4) Send an e-mail to Potholepalooza@dc.gov.

Callers must identify the location including the correct quadrant (northwest, northeast, southeast, southwest) in the city and as much detail as possible about the hazard, including the approximate size and depth of the pothole.

For more information and for daily updates, click on Potholepalooza.