Fresno city crews are seeing uptick in potholes as rainy season approaches

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Fresno City crews are seeing an uptick in reports of potholes now that we're entering the wet season, and they worked around the clock to get as many of them filled before the next storm comes Saturday.

Tires drive over cracked and crumbled roads, as potholes riddle Mckinley Avenue. The headache for drivers becoming worse during wet weather.

"We just go around them and I just pray when there's puddles and it's raining, I just pray that I don't hit a pothole," says Diane Bradford, Fresno Resident.

Rain is the road's worst enemy. When water creeps into the cracks it weakens the pavement creating potholes. City crews were out a day before the storm filling as many as they could ahead of the rain.

"Typically, the day after a storm, we may have upwards of 50 or 100 calls in that area but a typical fair-weather weekend we'll just have a small handful," says Scott Moiser, Director of Public Works for City of Fresno.

The costly job taking a lot of resources. Last year the city added a pothole team that works year-round, locating and fixing problem spots and answering reports. In October the city announced $7.4 million dollars to go towards hiring outside contractors to repave entire neighborhoods.

"It was a combination of eight different neighborhoods around the city and thankfully it came in over 30% under budget," says Moiser.

So far, they've already completed two neighborhoods and plan to do rest in the spring.

When the rain hits, the pothole crew. will quickly switch into storm response.

"You'll find our City of Fresno maintenance crew out clearing drains, dealing with any downed trees. Very quickly after the storm they'll switch back into pothole response," says Moiser.

If you'd like to report a pothole you can download the Fres-Go app. The app also allows you to see the status on city crews' progress.