NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Potholes beware, Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino announced plans Wednesday to pave several roads in the Lasalle area as the summer paving season shifts into overdrive.
Niagara Falls resident Stone Beck told 2 On Your Side he is "sick" of driving on Niagara Falls roads.
"I feel the downtown area gets way more attention than the living area. Because once you drive a mile away from the falls, everything gets bad," Beck said.
Mayor Restaino held a press conference to outline the paving project saying the city has targeted 10 roads in the Lasalle area to allow crews to complete the first 10 streets as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
"Many of the roads that are selected are selected as a result of some of the reimbursement programs the city and some of the municipalities are able to take advantage of," Restaino said.
City paving crews will turn their attention to other streets, including Cayuga Drive and then 87th Street, once the first 10 paving projects are finished.
Some of the roads have been neglected and gone untouched for nearly a decade, according to Restaino, who plans on using community development funds to pay for the job.
It will take several months to complete the paving project which Restaino says will conclude in the early Fall.
"Our idea is to resurface them so they're repaved and last further into the time frame," Restaino said.
Problem roads are nothing new to Western New York drivers. Restaino blames potholes for the poor road conditions and much-needed renovations. But Beck is critical of the city's pothole strategy, saying crews fill potholes instead of paving the road and that allows the potholes to come back.
Those unwanted but familiar road hazards may not surprise drivers but the cost of fixing your car after hitting one might. AAA estimates drivers spent $26.5 billion just in 2021. It adds up because AAA said 1 in 10 drivers could blame potholes for damaging their cars so severely that they had to pay a mechanic to fix them.
"It seems like every road you find around here, you can't go more than two or three blocks without finding large potholes to hit," Back said. This causes him to find alternate routes to work, an annoyance on top of his commute to Buffalo.
Restaino said he hears complaints from angry drivers. "Some people would even ask questions like 'Why are you doing that road? It's not even that bad.' Some of it has to do with the fact that we want to get them before they become that bad," Restaino said.
But Beck says the roads he drives are already that bad. "I'm rubbing the curb to get by there without hitting a pothole," Beck said.
Here are the roads Niagara Falls pave in the Lasalle area.
- Boiler Avenue
- Laughlin Drive
- Champlain Avenue
- South 86th Street
- Frontier Avenue
- 70th Street
- John Avenue
- Kies (Court and Street)
- 59th Street
