Crews have filled more than 7,000 potholes in Cincinnati so far this year, according to the city's public data dashboard. And potholes reported by residents seem to be filled more quickly than in recent years.
The standard is to fill a reported pothole within 12 business days. So far in 2026, the Department of Public Services has completed 98% of pothole requests within that time. That's compared to 91% last year, and 94% in 2024 and 2023.
DPS Director Mark Riley says he wants crews to respond much faster than 12 days to each customer service request, or CSR.
"When the CSRs come in, our goal is to address them within 24 hours," Riley told WVXU. "But we're not just addressing the CSRs. If crews are out and they pass a pothole, they're going to stop and fill it."
Riley says three or four crews are out each work day filling potholes. There's also a winter night crew that works while the rest of us are sleeping; the work goes quicker when the streets are empty.
How is Cincinnati filling potholes differently this year?
Riley says the city is using a new patch material this year, with several benefits.
"It's a permanent patch," Riley said. "Once it goes into the hole, it's going to bond with the existing material ... so we shouldn't see [the pothole] again."
And unlike the old material used, these patches can be done even during wet weather — something especially important during the rainy spring.
"It doesn't matter if the hole is wet, because it's going to bond no matter what," Riley said. "The old, outdated way of using cold patch [did not] bond because of the water. So we're able to continue our pothole repairs as if it was a sunny day."
Riley says they'll also soon start a new pavement prevention patch process on streets with a lot of damage. It's not a full street re-pavement, which is much more expensive and done through the Department of Transportation and Engineering.
"We're just doing those sections of bad pavement," Riley said. "Because it may not be on the capital improvement plan for this year, so we want to do a permanent patch in those locations to ensure that we don't have potholes in that location again next year."
New technology is headed for Cincinnati streets, too — a pothole spray patcher truck that's expected to significantly speed up the work. It requires only one person to operate, and they don't even have to get out of the truck.
"It does everything with the spray bar," Riley said. "It cleans [the hole], then it puts the emulsion in, then it puts the stone in, and then it's ready to go."
Riley says the truck should be delivered by the end of March and could be out filling potholes as early as the first week of April.
How to report a pothole in Cincinnati
Anyone can report a pothole on Cincinnati streets by calling 311, which is staffed by call takers 24/7, or using the 311 website or mobile app. You can use the same system for a wide variety of city services, like requesting a bulk item trash pickup or reporting litter or a malfunctioning traffic light.
This week the city launched a new 311 tool: a chat bot on the 311 website. Director of the Emergency Communications Center Bill Vedra says it's designed to make it easier than ever to request city services.
"It is just going to happen conversationally," Vedra said. "The appropriate questions are going to get asked based on the type of service request that it is, and it's going to get sent to the right place, and that is going to lead to fewer of those incorrect routings, those transfer delays through this platform."
"None of our options have gone away or are intended to go away, and folks can still call us around the clock if they would like to," Vedra said. "But we've added this chat option as a way for people to use natural language to open a request."
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