Lack of urgency to fix Indianapolis potholes concerns longtime resident

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indianapolis Department of Public Works on Tuesday was filling potholes, but one longtime Indianapolis resident said the last five years have been the worst she has ever seen.

Jayne Luckey, a 25-year Indianapolis resident, said crews finally came through her neighborhood on the near-east side to patch some of the potholes on her street on Tuesday. “Over the past five years, have gotten terrible, far worse than it’s ever been in the past. In the past, it’s been frustrating, but they seem to go through areas and do, like in Irvington, a little spot at a time, repair that area. Now, it seems like it’s hit-and-miss.”

Another resident of Luckey’s neighborhood said potholes have caused damage to his car multiple times.

Luckey lives near a massive pothole on North Forest Avenue and East Washington Street that News 8 previously reported on. She said it causes a lot of issues in her neighborhood. “Probably a foot and a half wide, this big circle, and always filled with water so you didn’t know, you just thought you were driving through water.”

“If you weren’t careful, it would cause a lot of car damage. There was actually a tow truck out there the other day waiting for people to have a breakdown.”

Luckey said she is concerned that repairing her concrete street with asphalt will not last long.

“When you don’t repair it with the same material after the snow melts and refreezes the snow will pop the asphalt back out again,” Luckey said. “So I don’t know if it’s job security or what, but they have to follow what their boss tells them to do.”

Luckey said she hopes the city takes some of these very damaged roads and starts over instead of continuing to patch them. It is the prime season for potholes and there is the potential that more are formed with any future freezes.