Some Indianapolis locals took the pothole situation into their own hands. When Mike Warren made four calls in one month to the Mayor’s Action Center in 2016 to get a pothole fixed without any result, he joined with friend Chris Lang to start Open Source Roads, a group that fixes potholes on their own.
“Neither of us was much of a handyman” Chris Lang said. “We have had to learn as we went.”
Despite a lack of experience, Warren and Lang discovered filling in potholes was cheaper and easier than they thought. One bag of fill costs $7 and is enough to fill two or three holes. Tamper tools cost $20, and a year’s worth of sealant costs $60. Soon Open Source Roads attracted more volunteers to help patch roads.
“It felt pretty good,” Robert Pflueger, a volunteer with Open Source Roads said. “While we were doing it, there were a couple of people who stopped and thanked us.”
Lang said the most time-consuming part of road repair is planning. Not only must the organization follow safety precautions and legal measures, but they also determine what is feasible given their limited resources and manpower. Once they conclude planning, Open Source Roads can fix a patch of potholes in 10 to 15 minutes. Even though workers can patch quickly, Open Source Roads volunteers avoid rushing because a driver can hold them legally liable if a pothole they fix breaks and damages a car.
“It was pretty physical,” Pflueger said. “It wasn’t anything easy. There’s a lot of time put into it and a lot of materials.”
