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Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Madison Streets Division announced Wednesday a comprehensive plan to enhance the quality of Madison streets, including filling potholes.

The plan, dubbed the Pothole Patrol Initiative, will undertake both short-term and long-term goals to improve streets, while a new website will allow citizens to report potholes and see exactly what type of street repairs are set to occur in the future.

?Filling potholes ? or even better, preventing them from developing in the first place ? is the most basic of basic services that city government can provide,? Cieslewicz said in a statement. ?Despite the best efforts of Mother Nature, we will continue to find ways to improve the quality of our streets at a price that taxpayers can afford.?

The plan calls for $40.2 million to replace, reconstruct and improve street conditions with an anticipated $269 million to cover costs within the next six years, according to the statement.

George Dreckmann, head of the streets division, said the concrete streets are seeing the most damage.

?Concrete streets, like University Avenue and Campus Drive, are the most traveled and a target for potholes to most likely occur,? Dreckmann said.

New this year is a heated emulsion tank that will allow road-patching vehicles to fill potholes with a cold mix of gravel and oil when temperatures are above 15 degrees. The fills are only temporary until workers can replace the old ones with permanent fills in May, Dreckmann said.

?Sometimes the fills can pop out in two days, but you have to try and fill them to keep the roads safe,? Dreckmann said.

Around May, the factories that make regular asphalt ?kick into operation,? and then workers can use an asphalt mix to start making permanent repairs, Dreckmann added.

The proposed plan calls for regular seasonal maintenance but increased servicing for 2008 because of unexpectedly high traffic.

?We do know our streets are wearing out faster than expected because traffic volumes have increased at much greater rates than expected from previous years,? Cieslewicz spokesperson George Twigg said.

Another main reason for the essential improvements is the extremely harsh winter conditions the city experienced over the past few months.

?As we were looking at heavy winter snow, we knew it would result in more potholes. We wanted to try to get ahead of it,? Twigg said. ?More snow means more moisture on the ground, and more moisture means more potholes, ultimately.?

Regarding damage to vehicles due to excessive potholes throughout the area, both Dreckmann and Twigg said the city is not responsible for repairs unless there is a case of negligence.

?As long as the city follows procedures for regularly filling potholes, we are not liable,? Dreckmann said. ?If we were to neglect a hazard continually, that would be an issue.?

As the city begins to implement improvements and reconstruction around the city, citizens can look forward to a new website, www.cityofmadison.com/potholepatrol/

?It is important to have a central location where there is information about potholes and where people can go to report potholes,? Dreckmann said.