Early snow brings potholes to Lincoln sooner

Driving around Lincoln you've likely seen or hit a pothole already, they creeped up on us this year thanks to recent snow and cold temperatures but the City of Lincoln says it has solutions.

Since 2016, the city has had new pothole patching machines but within the last year the implementation of a new app system has helped streamline the process.

As the snow and ice freezes and melts in the roads, it brings what public works calls "pothole palooza"

"Once that moisture gets in the roadways and freezes it causes a pothole to form," said Ben Glantz of Street Maintenance Operations.

The city says it's come earlier than expected this year, almost two months and bringing three more inches than 2017's first measurable snow.

"I'd say a little bit more of an uptick," said Glantz "just because the colder weather and the extra moisture with the snowfall a lot earlier compared to the last few years"

This year the city has filled about three thousand potholes that people have reported. With the help of their four patch mix machines, response time is down as well. Most potholes are now filled within five days of a complaint being filed.

"One operator can fill 100 plus holes," said Glantz "that operator stays inside the vehicle, rather than boots on the ground and he can go through a simple joystick"

Two thousand of those potholes were reported through the city's UPLNK app, which allows people to report pot holes on their phone.

"As a citizen that's on the street, they make the report," said Glantz "that goes directly to the complaint system and we get those out to our guys immediately"