Oakland crews patch 2,800 potholes

Oakland city officials said Thursday that they patched nearly 2,800 major potholes in the past three weeks and plan to fill at least 20,000 overall this year.

Crews targeted “priority one” potholes that remained on the streets after the city’s “Road Repair Blitz” this summer, working overtime and on weekends over the past 21 days, city officials said.

Mayor Libby Schaaf said in a statement:

“This year, after decades of neglect, we took major strides to reducing the nearly half-billion-dollar backlog of overdue road repairs across Oakland.”

Oakland Department of Transportation crews have repaired more than 17,800 potholes this year, more than in all of 2016, city officials said.

Funding for the project came from last November’s Measure KK, whith 82 percent of Oakland voters passed to provide $350 million in bond funds to address the backlog in road repairs.

Department of Transportation director Ryan Russo said in a statement:

“We are a new and determined department, and we are continuing to ramp up our capacity for repaving so that we can put the new funds from Measure KK to work as soon as possible.”

Oakland residents are encouraged to report potholes or any other infrastructure issues by calling (510) 615-5566, emailing callcenter@oaklandnet.com or using the smartphone app SeeClickFix.