Mayor promises concentrated pothole repairs

Vowing “weekly pothole blitzes,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that roadway crews would be out in force in the coming weeks and months to repair city streets pockmarked by the worst winter in years.

Already this year, the city’s transportation department has filled a record 113,131 potholes — not including the one de Blasio personally helped fix Thursday in Maspeth, Queens.

He said the city has filled more than double the number of potholes compared to this time in either of the two previous winters.

The "freeze-and-thaw cycles" from the seven storms have been particularly brutal to the city's more than 6,000 miles of streets, the mayor said.

He said the city has filled more than double the number of potholes compared to this time in either of the two previous winters.

For his turn at pothole-filling, de Blasio sported a fluorescent orange jacket to join a roadway repair crew filling a 3-foot-wide-by-3-inch-deep crater. On cue, he swept away the debris and shoveled in hot smoldering asphalt off a truck.

Laborers applied sealant under the supervision of the deputy commissioner for roadway repair and maintenance.

The sight of New York’s 109th mayor fixing a Queens roadway drew gawkers from the neighborhood.

De Blasio's transporation commissioner, Polly Trottenberg, later said they picked this particular pothole because it was on a street less traveled that wouldn't snarl traffic during the repairs.