Honolulu’s pothole filler shortage

It’s a wonder you haven’t read or heard about it. The pothole filler shortage. Whatever they use to fill up potholes on Oahu is completely out of stock.

Two of my favorite potholes have been around since late 2007. They’re each at least a foot deep by now. Both reside within a couple of car lengths on the middle lane of Beretania Street, just Diamond Head of Keeaumoku Street.

Because these twin potholes are so close together it’s more difficult to zig and zag to avoid them both. Still, since last year, both potholes are still there. Why?

The aforementioned pothole filler shortage. Potholes, when they reach a certain depth, usually around 12 inches or more, get filled by the city streets department. Whatever they use to fill the potholes is in short supply or simply unavailable, regardless of price.

How else can you explain why so many potholes have gone unfilled for so long? I could be wrong, but it stands to reason that whatever material makes up our streets and roads could be used to fill potholes. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been no new streets and roads in Honolulu for what seems like a decade or two.

Isn’t that additional evidence of the pothole filler shortage? If the city cannot make new roads, or cannot pave over bad roads because there’s a shortage of road building materials, then our potholes will be here awhile, because there’s nothing to fill them.

How about modifying the Adopt a Highway program to ease the Honolulu pothole crisis? Sections of highways on the mainland often are adopted by individuals, companies, and civic groups who clean rubbish from alongside the highways.

The city could institute an Adopt a Pothole program for Honolulu. Local folks, local businesses, churches, civic groups, even the military, could adopt potholes along a stretch of streets throughout the city, and fill them in using solid waste.

The potholes would use all the rubbish from Honolulu’s households and the city would eliminate the landfill problem. The city’s streets are in such poor repair that new potholes would spring up after each rain, providing the city with an unending destination for solid waste.

If we can’t find a place to store our waste, let’s drive on it.