Councilor at Large Earl Persip III wants fixes to the poorly patched potholes on Elm Street.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Roadwork remains a hot topic in the City Council's new term.

The council took up a petition last week from Councilor at Large Earl Persip III seeking an update from Commissioner of Public Utilities Ricardo Morales on a road patch at 181 Elm St. Persip requested that the patch be fixed last year, as it extends into the center of the lane and is not level.

"I gotta explain why I'm dwelling in on these patches — because they're causing the residents, the taxpayers more money in the long run," the councilor said.

"Because they're not getting it done right. They're not doing them right. They end up breaking up and then the road needs to be done way sooner than it has to be. Elm Street is the perfect example."

While the asphalt-filled section of roadway is being monitored, Morales pointed to ongoing issues with contracted work and weather constraints.  

"We do notice that there is a little bit of a dip and we will be addressing that as soon as the weather allows in the spring," he said.

It was confirmed that this is the third time this patch will be done by the same company and Persip said it does bad patches throughout the city.

"They need to fix it to a point where it's flat, level with the rest of the surface and that's what we have communicated to the contractor. They are grieving that they cannot fix it in the right way because of the weather. We agree. We are telling them that as soon as weather allows that they have to fix it properly," Morales said.

"We're also having discussions with this same contractor about in general their workmanship in other places they are doing excavations on the road. We are having issues with other contractors not following the standards."

He admitted that the city struggles to follow every single contractor, as there has been a "massive increase" in work that is done on the roads. This is likely attributed to more available funding for gas and electrical work.

"You saw that and other councilors saw that this summer and we were feeling that as well," he said "Where we were feeling that we could not keep up with reviewing all the work as we should be."

Persip wondered why the city allows utility companies to cut into roads when the weather restricts contractors from properly patching them.

"These are necessary fixes they are doing and the city taking them and telling them that they cannot do the work they need to do would require us to essentially take on the responsibility for them not to do that type of work. That's one," Morales explained, adding that the city flags the work so that contractors have to fix it and that during winter months, excavations cannot be covered with a road plate.

He estimates that Elm Street was repaved between 2014 and 2016.

Persip said every manhole is caving in and there are patches all down the road from work that wasn’t done right.

"There shouldn't be a speed dip or a speed hump, at one point, in front of Greylock bank this past summer from the same contractor," he said. "We have to hold these people accountable because we're the ones paying for the roads that have to be done sooner than they should have to be."

The councilor said that he will keep dwelling on this until the city figures out a better way to hold contractors accountable because they will "keep doing the same shoddy work because we allow it."

Morales explained that the best way to ensure the work is done correctly is to be there to make sure they are following standards before it is covered.

"After it is covered, it may last a year and then it fails. It may last three days and then it fails," he said.

"So we don't know, we cannot rely on after it is covered and that is the challenging part. It is a scheduling issue. It is a manpower, people issue and yes, we do have our standards and we need to hold these contractors accountable. It is a challenge in our department and we need to be better at it."

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