Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan was joined by fellow city officials and Department of Public Works employees to launch the city’s new hot patching operation, as well as introducing a new online Pothole Repair Counter.
Ryan says Thursday's announcement along Clinton Street in Buffalo's East Side neighborhood is a delivery on his commitment to improve the durability, transparency, and accountability of the city’s pothole-repair program.
“This is the kind of investment in basic services that will have an immediate, noticeable impact on the City of Buffalo,” said Ryan on Thursday. “We promised residents we would fix our streets by giving our crews the right equipment to do the job properly. Erie County helped us get started, trained our workers, and proved what was possible — now Buffalo has its own hot patching operation, and we are building the capacity to make longer-lasting repairs across the city.”
Using investments made in the Ryan Administration’s 2026-27 budget, the city has purchased a hot box, which can carry approximately three tons of hot asphalt, and an accompanying roller. Together, the equipment will allow Department of Public Works crews to place and compact hot asphalt for repairs that are more durable and longer-lasting than the cold patches the city has traditionally utilized exclusively.
With the new equipment secured, city crews are trained and ready to begin filling potholes immediately thanks to a previously announced partnership with Erie County, through which county crews spent months sharing equipment and expertise with the City of Buffalo’s Engineering Division.
Buffalo’s Department of Public Works now has a crew dedicated to hot patching roads, and will be able to hot patch Monday through Friday from April through November of each year, while asphalt plants are open.
“For years, Buffalo was stuck in a cycle of temporary fixes: Patch a pothole, watch it fail and send a crew back to the same location,” Ryan said. “Better equipment means better repairs, fewer repeat visits to the same potholes and more time for our crews to address the next street that needs attention. And with our new Pothole Repair Counter, residents will be able to see the work getting done. This is what fixing the basics looks like.”
Hot patching will be prioritized based on factors including temperature, pothole size and condition, traffic and emergency-route importance, and whether a location has experienced recurring failures. The new equipment can be used with cold-mix asphalt during the winter, allowing crews to produce a better compacted repair even when hot asphalt is unavailable.
“Seeing is believing—and in the City of Buffalo, our residents need to see that our potholes actually get fixed,” said Fillmore District Councilman Mitch Nowakowski on Thursday. “Investing in the right equipment and building up our own crews means we can make better, longer-lasting repairs while getting more value out of every taxpayer dollar. I’m overjoyed to see Buffalo moving toward a smarter, more durable approach to fixing our streets, and I look forward to seeing this equipment put to work across our neighborhoods.”
The Department of Public Works plans to begin work with the new equipment on the following street segments:
- Clinton Street from Fillmore Avenue to Metcalfe Street
- Amherst Street from Colvin Avenue to Nottingham Terrace
- East North Street from Michigan Avenue to Main Street
- Franklin Street from West Eagle Street to Niagara Street
- South Park Avenue from Lee Street to Bailey Avenue
- Tifft Street from Hopkins Street to Fuhrmann Boulevard
As of Sept. 3, the Department of Public Works has closed more than 4,000 pothole-related 3-1-1 service requests in 2026. Because the counter tracks potholes reported through 3-1-1, it does not include additional potholes filled by Public Works crews during regular roadway maintenance.
Residents can report a pothole by calling 3-1-1 or downloading the Buffalo 311 app from the Apple App Store or Google Play.
"This is the kind of investment in basic services that will have an immediate, noticeable impact on the City of Buffalo" - Sean Ryan
"This is the kind of investment in basic services that will have an immediate, noticeable impact on the City of Buffalo" - Sean Ryan
