The Indianapolis Department of Public Works (DPW) today highlighted locations in the first phase of its strip-patching program for 2020. DPW plans to address streets across Indianapolis with the strip-patching technique as soon as asphalt plants are able to open and supply street crews, expected as early as next week.

Strip-patching is a more permanent solution to deteriorating roadways than standard pothole filling. When warmer weather allows hot-mix asphalt plants to open for the construction season, specialized equipment is used to mill partial or entire lanes of roadway before laying down a new surface, up to four inches deep. While historically opened in March or April, DPW has worked with asphalt plants to open earlier in recent years to supply street crews with the material they need for more substantive maintenance.

"With asphalt plants nearly ready to open, we're watching for a couple days next week with dry weather lasting long enough to get started," said Indy DPW Director Dan Parker. "The availability of hot-mix asphalt kicks everything up a notch: we can begin strip-patching full lanes of street, and the patch we use in chuckholes will last much longer."

The first locations to be strip-patched include:

Meridian St, 38th St to 56th St

79th St, Michigan Rd to Township Line Rd

Moore Rd, 79th St to 86th St

Traders Ln, Wilson Rd to Lafayette Rd

21st St, Tansel Rd to Country Club Rd

Rockville Rd, Gasoline Alley to dead end

Kessler Blvd W Dr, White River bridge to Westfield Blvd

Country Club Rd, Rockville Rd to 10th St

Belmont Ave, Minnesota St to Morris St

21st St, Wellesley Blvd to Post Rd

Shadeland Ave, 21st St to Western Select Dr

Emerson Ave, English Ave to Washington St

Allisonville Rd, 62nd St to 71st St

75th St, Dean Rd to Binford Blvd

Kessler Blvd E Dr, Allisonville Rd to Binford Blvd

Southport Rd, US 31 to Shelby St

Hanna Ave, Meridian St to East St

Thompson Rd, High School Rd to Mann Rd

Trotter Rd, County Line Rd to Camby Rd

​DPW will work from a finalized list of strip-patching locations, based on recommendations from DPW's Operations and Engineering divisions using pavement data to target the most deteriorated streets. DPW will announce further street segments to be addressed with strip-patching as the first round of locations nears completion.

Strip-patching locations will be addressed both by contractors and by DPW's newly created, in-house Street Maintenance Team. In 2019, its inaugural year, this new DPW team of 36 crew members completed 64 intensive strip-patching projects.

Pothole-filling crews (up to 90 members daily) have also been working each day this week to service pothole requests from residents across Indianapolis, filling nearly 10,000 potholes with about 240 tons of cold-mix asphalt. When placed on a roadway, hot-mix asphalt bonds more completely to the current asphalt road surface than does cold-mix asphalt, meaning that the upcoming availability of hot-mix asphalt will also increase the effectiveness of standard pothole-filling operations.

To report a pothole on Indianapolis local streets:

Call the Mayor's Action Center at 317-327-4622; or,

'Create A New Request' via the online portal RequestIndy by navigating to maps.indy.gov/RequestIndy/ or by downloading the RequestIndy app; or,

Use the Indy Pothole Viewer to report a location (maps.indy.gov/indypotholeviewer/) and then view information about where potholes have been reported across the county.

As strip-patching and other road maintenance crews take to the streets in larger numbers this spring, DPW encourages drivers to give construction crews the space they need to work safely. Drivers should watch for orange barrels and cones, slowing down through construction zones and using caution around workers.