LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – On any given day, you’ll see LCG Streets Division workers around the city and parish. 

Filling potholes with a cold mix asphalt-limestone mixture. 

Grading a rural country gravel road. 

Or performing a host of other responsibilities. 

LCG Streets Superintendent Chad Nepveaux said his 60-person team repairs streets and sidewalks, cuts tall grass, clears debris, and does maintenance on 400 bridges. 

“We do a lot of patching, a lot of pile replacement or maybe even repair on the bridges,” Nepveaux said. 

Most of their equipment is stored in the public works yard off East University Avenue. 

The LCG Streets Division falls under the Public Works Department. The Streets Division is responsible for maintaining about 1,200 miles of roads in the city and parish. Most of the roads are asphalt and that’s where pothole patching trucks come into play. 

Nepveaux said it’s important to get potholes patched as soon as possible. 

Pothole repairs make up the bulk of the streets division’s workload. 

“We probably get on average 20 calls a day and when the weather’s really rainy and ugly it can get as much as 40 a day,” Nepveaux explained. 

Even with all those calls and an occasional angry complaint, he says the response time is usually less than 48 hours. 

“We’re trying to get there right when the problem happens if we can or soon thereafter,” Nepveaux said. 

Heavy equipment operator Morris Batiste was out recently on Patin Road near Carencro in one of LCG’s two motor graders. 

LCG maintains about 60 miles of gravel roads which can be easily damaged by heavy traffic and bad weather. 

“Those trucks operate five days a week keeping those roads graded properly so they’ll drain and obviously be safe for them,” said Nepveaux. 

The streets division even has a person who drives around the city and parish looking for potholes and other problems. 

Nepveaux said if his guy doesn’t find problems, the public usually does.