Yes, there are more potholes in Nashville this year. Here's why.

Steam rose from the hot black mix of rock and sand as it settled in one of a cluster of craters on Sylvan Street in East Nashville.

The day before, the Metro Public Works crew filling potholes had enjoyed the sun and 60-degree March weather. On Wednesday, Randy Madden worked in temperatures 20 degrees cooler as flurries came down.

Every day, Madden is out repairing Nashville streets — as he has done for years. Thirty-two, to be exact, the last 14 of which the Nashville native has been tasked with filling potholes.

"This has been the worst year I've ever seen," Madden said of the number of potholes across the city this winter, which has translated to night and weekend overtime for public works crews trying to keep up.

Drivers in Nashville convinced that their travels around the city have been particularly jolting have the numbers to back them up.

Since the start of the year, Metro has had 80 percent more potholes to fill, according to city data.

That’s 9,179 potholes, compared with 5,087 in 2017.

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While the Tennessee Department of Transportation tracks potholes differently, the state agency responsible for repairing Nashville's interstates says it also has had to deploy more resources this year to patching roads.

In the Middle Tennessee region, TDOT has spent 141 percent more on pothole patching this fiscal year than it had at the same point in 2017, jumping from just over $500,000 at this time last year to more than $1.2 million.

While TDOT on average uses 2 to 4 tons of patching material each day throughout the year, the agency in recent weeks has averaged closer to 14 tons of material each day, spokeswoman Kathryn Schulte said.

Why are there more potholes in Nashville this year?

It’s an increase that Nashville and TDOT say is largely attributed to higher-than-usual amounts of rainfall.

“February, for Nashville, was the third wettest on record,” said Matt Reagan, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Nashville.

This year, Nashville has received just over 13 inches of precipitation, an amount that’s roughly 50 percent higher than the typical amount, according to the weather service.

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Potholes form when snow or rain seeps through the pavement and into the soil below the road, freezing when temperatures drop and causing the ground to expand and push the pavement up.

As temperatures rise again, the ground returns to normal level while the pavement often remains raised, forming a cavity between the pavement and the ground below.

When traffic passes over the place where a gap has formed, the surface of the pavement cracks and drops into the hollow space, creating the pothole.

More rain is forecast to fall this weekend in Middle Tennessee, and the Climate Prediction Center expects more than average precipitation this spring for Tennessee, meaning the unusually high number of potholes could persist for a while longer.

Based on his experience, Madden also expects to continue working longer-than-normal days into the spring.

“I would probably say we have at least another month of doing these extra hours,” Madden said. “That’s what we’re here for.”

So far this season, his crew members, which start their day at 6:30 a.m., have been working anywhere from one to six hours of overtime each day and have come in on some Saturdays to try to catch up.

How does Nashville handle pothole repairs?

Madden flips through a stack of papers on his clipboard. Those work orders, and a series of texts with street addresses from a contact in his cellphone saved as “Boss,” serve as his crew’s daily agenda.

If there’s a particularly dangerous or problematic pothole, the city will prioritize it. Otherwise, the 12 to 18 employees the city has out working on potholes each day will work through the stack, generally sticking to their assigned area of the city.

On the East Nashville street where Madden was working Wednesday, he backed up the truck to each pothole, and his crew — which includes Charles Thomas, 35, and John Street, 43 — got to work.

“That’s a good size one,” Madden said, pointing to a pothole about 3 feet long.

From the “patch truck,” what the crew called the type of vehicle that hauls and heats the mixture, Street pulled a lever that dispenses some out and shoveled it into a pothole.

Though the pothole repair truck is one of the city's backups — there's a broken handle on one of the levers — it's a definite step up from the open-bed yellow ones the city used years ago, Madden said, when crews would regularly be stopped by passing motorists alarmed at flames shooting out the back.

As equipment has continued to improve, the city has required one infrared patch truck, "the latest and greatest in road surface maintenance," said spokesperson Cortnye Stone.

Behind Street came Thomas, who spread the mixture out — careful not to pile it too high — before Street returned with a metal tamper tool to press it down and finish the job.

For all the complaining there is about potholes needing fixing, occasionally, Madden said, a driver will roll down a window to thank the men for coming by. Other times, drivers will honk, frustrated at the crew for being in the way.

How long does it take for Nashville and TDOT to respond to pothole repair requests?

According to an analysis by the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee of Nashville's pothole repair request data from July through February, it took on average 3.8 days to complete the requests.

Metro Public Works said crews make every effort to fill potholes within 24 hours of being reported.

TDOT's turnaround time right now is also several days after receiving a pothole report, though Schulte said when there are fewer requests during the summer and fall, the department can typically patch potholes within a day. They've also had crews pulling night and weekend shifts in the last month to keep up with the volume of repairs needed.

If TDOT receives a report from law enforcement or citizens that an interstate pothole is causing flat tires, they elevate the report into an emergency repair category and send out a crew right away.

How to report a pothole

To report a pothole on a Metro-maintained street, call 311 or 615-862-5000, or go online to hub.nashville.gov to file a report.

On the interstate, contact TDOT's Region 3 office at 615-350-4300 or email TDOT.Comments@tn.gov.

Mike Reicher contributed to this story.

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com and on Twitter at @natalie_allison.

By the numbers

Potholes Metro has filled this year: 9,179

Potholes Metro had filled this time last year: 5,087

TDOT spending on potholes this budget year: $1.25 million

TDOT pothole spending this time last year: $516,655