The freaky run of warm weather in early January has also accelerated one of the nastier rites of spring: Potholes.
Around Greater Boston, city and state highway officials say they are seeing far more potholes than normal for this time of year, thanks to an early confluence of everything that produces those aggravating craters: heavy snow, fleets of plows thundering over the roads, a rock-hard deep freeze last week and now, this week, an early thaw as temperatures have soared into the 50s and 60s.
"It's definitely starting earlier than I can ever remember it starting," said Medford's mayor, Michael J. McGlynn, who has managed that city for 21 years. "They're showing up earlier than usual and deeper than usual."
Complaints have been pouring in from all over the area. Edmund Pitcher of Lexington said he has been dodging an "axle-breaking pothole" on Wood Street in that town. "Make them fix it!" Pitcher said in an e-mail. Richard J. DeAgazio said that on his way home to Charlestown Wednesday night, he hit a pothole on Storrow Drive eastbound in the Berkeley Street underpass so deep, DeAgazio joked, "it shattered my teeth."
Adam Hurtubise, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Highway Department, said 23 workers on nine crews were laboring around Greater Boston yesterday attacking potholes, putting down 23,000 pounds of new hot-poured asphalt and 18,000 pounds of temporary fill called cold patch. Roads getting fixed included Route 1 in Chelsea north of the Tobin Bridge, Interstate 495 from Haverhill to Salisbury, and several spots on Route 24 south of Boston.
"Potholes are a result of freeze-thaw cycles, and the drastic temperature changes came earlier this year, so we are going from snow removal to pothole repair in a matter of weeks, not months," Hurtubise said. Getting 27 inches of snow in December alone - 10 inches more than fell all last winter - provided plenty of fuel for potholes in the form of melting snow.
"Think of a pothole as like a frozen pipe in your basement, which isn't really a problem until it thaws and water spurts everywhere, and then you have a problem. It's similar with potholes," said Wendy Fox, a spokeswoman for the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which maintains riverfront and harborfront parkways around Boston. "When they're all frozen, the water's not going anywhere. When it thaws, water starts moving around, and that what causes erosion under the roadbed and potholes," Fox said.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation said Storrow Drive is one of dozens of agency roads that 20 employees have been attending to all month, along with contractors working the Lynnway and Lynn Shore Drive. The intersection of Alewife Brook Parkway and Massachusetts Avenue at the Arlington-Cambridge line is another hot spot work crews are focusing on this week, Fox said.
To report a pothole on state-owned roads, motorists can call 511 on a cellphone or dial 617-973-7800, the state Highway Department switchboard.
Dennis Royer, Boston's chief of public works and transportation, said city residents and motorists are best served by reporting potholes to the city at 617-635-4500, so he knows where to send his 10 crews to work. "In a perfect world, we would go out there and find them before anyone else does, but we're subject to staff limitations," Royer said.
In winter, Royer said, all the city can normally afford to do is fill holes with cold patch and wait until spring to make permanent repairs with hot asphalt, which requires specialized equipment to properly apply during winter. Many area asphalt factories shut down once temperatures get too cold for highway repaving and driveway installations, and that also makes it more difficult and expensive to get hot asphalt for permanent repairs in winter.
Royer said he was hard-pressed to identify any areas of the city that are especially hard-hit. "All 10 of my districts are busy," said Royer, who directs his crews to keep their eyes open wherever they go. "The standard practice is, if you go down to 312 Washington St. for a pothole complaint and there's four others in the block, fill them," Royer said. "It's critical that you get to the potholes and cracks as soon as possible. The larger they get, the more damage they do."
Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.
