Baltimore Mayor Young launches 50-day ‘pothole challenge,’ pledges city will fill 5,000 potholes

Baltimore work crews will fill 5,000 potholes over the next 50 days, Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young announced Wednesday, as part of the administration’s multi-pronged effort to improve roads and clean up the city.

“This is an all hands on deck effort,” Young said. “The challenge will be met.”

The nearly two-month blitz coincides with the roughest time of year for potholes, a perennial problem across Baltimore neighborhoods. Department of Transportation Director Steve Sharkey said that while on a typical day his crews fulfill roughly 60 pothole repairs, they’ll kick it up to more than 100 a day during this initiative.

Young asked residents to call the non-emergency help line, 311, to report problems they see on city streets.

“Making Baltimore cleaner and more beautiful is critical for improving public safety and helping Baltimore’s neighborhoods become more livable and prosperous,” he said.

The pothole challenge is part of Young’s “Clean It Up!” campaign, which he launched last month with a pledge to eliminate the city’s steep backlog of 311 cleaning requests.

Last week, he rolled out a public Top 10 list designed to shame Baltimore’s illegal dumping and trash violators into compliance.

Young said residents can hold his administration accountable for the work by checking the CleanStat website, which is tracking 311 requests and pothole repairs.

During the mayor’s announcement, his podium was situated about a foot behind a large pothole on North Collington Avenue. He later donned work gloves and helped a work crew pound asphalt into the hole, smoothing it over before flexing in celebration.