Blame the harsh winter for the galaxy of potholes on city streets and the spike in complaints from New Yorkers.
The Department of Transportation told a City Council transportation committee hearing that the city has received nearly 9,000 pothole complaints so far this year, 35 percent more than last year at this time.
"It's really bad, terrible," said deliveryman Michael Acevedo who must navigate the minefields everyday just doing his job.
"The only way to avoid them is to fly over," Gobin Raghunandan said just after passing through a particularly bad stretch on West 48th Street.
NBC New York wanted to find out if anyone had taken the time to report this on the city's 311 website. And there it was: a complaint from February 15th, a complaint not yet remedied.
The DOT says it has filled more potholes to date in 2011 than during the same period in 2010, making more than 117,000 repairs -- a 62 percent jump over last year.
Getting ahead of the holes in the asphalt is going to take some extra cash, and Mayor Bloomberg has pledged an added $2 million for extra crews working weekdays and weekends.
The curious and concerned can track repair work on the 311 site by clicking on the project map and following the prompts for such identifiers as location and type of complaint.
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The DOT's new Daily Pothole blog states repairs are taking an average of less than three days.
That's an average, not an always.
