Better 311 · News · Independent public records service
Better 311 emblem Better 311Public records, made useful
Better 311Filed ← All briefs
Data brief · Better 311

Oakland's pothole season started three weeks early

Pavement requests are running 40% above the five-year average for this week of the year. The response queue is already stretching.

Better 311 · Aug 30, 2026 · 6:00 AM PT · 3 min read
Sources: OAKLAND OPEN DATA QUTH-GB8E · Data checked 2026-08-30 · Sample figures from public records
Caltrans pothole repairs on northbound Interstate 880 at High Street in Oakland
Photo: Caltrans pothole repairs at High Street and northbound Interstate 880, Oakland. Allaboutgeorge via Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0. This photo does not show the locations discussed in the report.

Oakland's pothole season showed up early this year. Requests began climbing in the first week of September, three weeks ahead of the usual rise in the five-year series. The count for this week is 40% above the recent average.

The 311 file splits pavement complaints across several categories. The two that belong in this story are "Pothole" and "Street Pavement Condition." Together they produced 1,142 requests in the last 30 days. That is the highest early-season total in the sample.

1,142
pavement requests in the last 30 days. Highest early-season total in the sample.

The timing changes the workload before winter arrives. At this volume, a pavement request takes a median of 9 days to reach first action. In the busiest corridors, the median stretches to 14 days. A few weeks of extra reports can turn a repair queue into a backlog.

Sobrante Park, the MacArthur corridor, and the flatlands east of Lake Merritt have the most requests in this sample. They also led the list last season. The pattern is familiar. The early start is not.

How to read the numbers. "Pothole" and "Street Pavement Condition" are separate categories in the dataset. We group them because both feed the city's road-repair queue. The city reclassified several street categories in 2024, so earlier figures are not directly comparable.

Better 311 Weekly

This brief, plus four more numbers and one chart, every Monday at 7 AM.

More from Better 311

"Closed, no action" is the stat every renter should watch
Better 311 · Analysis
How long does a dumped mattress actually sit on an Oakland corner?
Better 311 · Data brief
Better 311 · Independent, not a city agency How this newsroom worksEthicsCorrectionsContact