Driving or biking through the dangerous stretch of Commonwealth Avenue on Boston University’s campus requires not only dodging students as they cross the street, but watching out for quite a few potholes.
The treacherous ruts have become a prominent feature on campus due to freezing temperatures and constant traffic on Commonwealth Avenue, but College of Communication professor Frank Shorr, who commutes 20 miles to work every day, said in an email that Commonwealth Avenue and Kenmore Square have always been pothole problems.
‘Between the constant construction and resurfacing, the Avenue is rarely smooth,’ Shorr said. ‘Kenmore Square has always been a pothole disaster area, [but] there’s too much traffic to do the repair work correctly.’
Direct Tire & Auto Service President Barry Steinberg said he has seen the effect the potholes have wreaked on Boston residents’ cars.
‘It’s rare when we get here in the morning that we don’t have a car here that got towed in overnight, and it’s usually from pothole damage,’ Steinberg said. ‘This is one of the worst years I can remember seeing in a long, long time.’
Potholes can cause serious damage to cars, costing drivers hundreds to thousands of dollars for bent wheels, ruined or flat tires and damage to the alignment and shock absorbers, he said.
These dangerous obstructions are also a concern for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority because they can cause damages to buses and injury to operators and passengers, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said.
Boston Public Works and Transportation Chief Dennis Royer said their claims division takes into consideration drivers’ complaints concerning damaged cars.
‘We do get complaints about damage to cars,’ Royer said. ‘That’s one of the reasons we try to stay as on top of this as possible.’
The safety of drivers is also a concern when drivers swerve at the last minute to avoid a pothole or hit one, Steinberg said.
Part of the pothole problem is the city does not have enough manpower to make every repair, Royer said. Each city district has a pothole crew repairing the roads every day they can, but with 800 miles of road and only 10 crews, the city can only repair so much in one day, he said.
The city also depends on citizens to report potholes, Royer said.
‘We do rely on citizens to call the hotline and report the potholes. This helps us facilitate,’ Royer said. ‘We also have inspectors who go out on a daily basis. They do rely quite heavily on the hotline.’
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