When Quincy Roberts tells people he fills potholes for the city of Atlanta, he usually gets the same response.
“‘There are so many holes in the street, can you go over here and do this one?’” Roberts said he always hears. “And I say: ‘Hey, call it in.’”
The Atlantan is an equipment operator for the famed “Pothole Posse” — an initiative to clear the streets of potholes that are often more than a nuisance and can cause safety issues for drivers.
But only four crew members — split into two teams — currently respond to calls from residents reporting troublesome holes that pop up across the city’s more than 4,500 miles of roadways.
Officials from the Atlanta Department of Transportation said they recognize the need and are hoping to expand.
Early on a Tuesday morning, under the shadow of the Bank of America Plaza building on 15th street, Roberts’ crew tended to the various potholes that plague the area’s drivers and bicyclists.
“I love what I do,” Roberts said. “We drive the streets every day — I do in my own vehicles — and I just want to make the road safe for me, my family, everybody else’s.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens rekindled the program in 2022, after it began originally under Mayor Shirley Franklin, to speed up pothole repairs.
Dickens said during his State of the City Address in March that they were able to fill more than 10,600 potholes last year.
On average, Atlanta’s 3-1-1 road-related service hotline gets around 25 pothole reports a day, according to the department, and each crew fills around 35 — weather permitting.
That’s because, Roberts said, crews won’t call it a day if there’s asphalt still left on their truck.
“Whatever hole we pass by, if we can get to it, we’ll get to it,” he said.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Each pothole costs the city about $150 to fill, said Deputy Commissioner for the Atlanta Department of Transportation Allen Smith, who has been working with the department for over five years. Calls are prioritized based on when potholes were reported but also where they are.
“We try to do first in first out, so whoever calls them first,” he said. “But we also try to group them geographically, so we can get the biggest bang for our buck.”
The department is hoping city leaders include funding in the upcoming budget for two more crews. Smith said that might allow them to fill in holes before they’re even reported.
But for now, with pesky potholes often a sore subject, Smith asks residents to be patient. If a report hasn’t been addressed within five days, Smith said they should call back with more detailed location information.
“You can imagine there are a lot of streets, a lot of intersections, so we’re trying to find a needle in a haystack sometimes,” he said.
Residents can submit a pothole service request by calling 311, going to the ATL 311 website, or notifying @ATL311 on Twitter with the location of the pothole.
