SDOT reports filling nearly 15,000 potholes in 2020

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) revealed Tuesday that it filled 15,000 potholes in 2020, and has filled in another 1,000 since the city’s recent snowstorm in February.

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Seattle uses a system known as “Find It, Fix It,” which allows residents to report potholes by submitting photos through a city-run smartphone app. Of those pothole requests submitted to the city last year, SDOT says it responded to over 80% in three days or less.

Response times tend to slow in the wake of major snow events, though, with water from rain seeping into existing cracks in pavements, and then freezing once temperatures drop. The resulting expansion of ice widens those cracks, loosens pavement, and eventually, creates “larger cracks and empty voids,” SDOT describes.

“Over time, vehicles pass over these cracks and force the already loose pavement free,” it detailed in a recent blog post. “A pothole can begin small but can widen or deepen depending on how many vehicles pass over the hole or if more water continues to fill in the hole.”

Record-setting snowstorms in early 2019 saw Seattle deal with a similar spike in potholes, with SDOT filling over 1,100 over a single seven-day period. During a “Pothole Palooza” campaign in 2018, crews filled 8,700 potholes in just two weeks.

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SDOT has also made a point to ensure that potholes in West Seattle and Duwamish Valley neighborhoods were adequately dealt with in 2020, given that drivers in the area are still coping with the ongoing closure of the West Seattle Bridge. In total, crews filled 1,600 potholes in the area last year, and prioritized roads near the 1st Avenue Bridge, a crucial alternative route in and out of West Seattle.

“West Seattle and surrounding neighborhoods like South Park and Georgetown have been having a very challenging year,” SDOT said. “As we continue to help people traveling to and from West Seattle and work with nearby communities to prioritize projects that will reduce the impact of increased detour traffic, we’re also focusing on filling potholes along the West Seattle Bridge detour routes which are carrying more cars than ever intended.”

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