Persistent potholes continue to plague parts of Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood.
Fulton Road between the Memphis Avenue commercial district to Biddulph Road is pockmarked with dozens of potholes and drivers say it continues to get worse year after year.
Some describe it as driving on the surface of the moon. Others compare it to a minefield. Either way, driving on Fulton Road these days is one rough ride.
“You have to keep turning your car to miss the potholes,” Julie Szenger said. “You have to weave. My dad says you practically have to drive like you’re drunk to avoid [the potholes].”
Some of the potholes are the size of an apple. Others are like huge scars in the pavement. One pothole is so deep, the rebar — the material that gives concrete its structure — is exposed.
Van Olsen, who works at a nearby auto parts store, also lives on Fulton Road. He has seen the damage caused by potholes first hand.
“A few days ago, a lady came in with a flat tire. She ruined the tire on the pothole,” Olsen said. “I would say it’s one of the worst streets I’ve been on.”
It doesn’t get much better further south on Fulton. Large portions of the roadway appear to be buckling, likely from the yearly freeze-thaw-expand cycle of Northeast Ohio weather.
This portion of Fulton, however, continues to get worse, drivers said.
“As far as I can remember it’s been like this. It gets worse every winter,” said William Werling, a resident of Old Brooklyn for the past decade. “They patch it up here and there and it doesn’t last very long.”
With the passage of an income tax hike in 2016, more money is available for road repairs, including year-round pothole service, city officials said. As far as determining which streets to repave, those decisions are made based on the city’s pavement management study, a spokeswoman for Mayor Frank Jackson’s office said in an email. Put simply, the worst roads are re-paved first. Crews also drive around the city to evaluate streets and recommend pothole repair.
While this portion of Fulton Road is not scheduled to be re-paved this year, crews are expected to fill in the potholes between 11 p.m. Monday and 7 a.m. Tuesday, weather permitting.
