SALAMANCA, N.Y. — There’s more than a month until the first day of spring and already potholes have plagued area roads, including the main arterial routes into Salamanca.

Rough-road signs have been erected on high-traffic streets entering the city, and officials this week closed part of a lane of southbound Central Avenue, which is also Route 219, near Hickory Street due to its condition.

Salamanca Department of Public Works Superintendent Rob Carpenter said a hole that measured nearly a foot deep on Central Avenue, along with other holes around it, prompted the lane’s closing after a camper twisted an axle in the problem area Sunday.

“All we can say is please slow down,” said Salamanca Mayor Michael Smith. “Please use your head. If you’re following a guy and he’s swerving side-to-side, don’t run up alongside of him.”

The New York State Department of Transportation is expected to be on-site Tuesday to remedy the problem spot on Central Avenue, according to Susan Surdej, the department’s Region 5 spokeswoman. She said a crew will use rapid-set concrete instead of cold patch on some of the deep potholes.

“That will provide a longer-lasting repair,” she said.

For the next several weeks, DPW crews will apply more cold patch — their primary go-to remedy in winter weather — to problem areas, Carpenter said. He noted his department has spent about $4,000 on cold patch in the last month, a figure higher than in previous years.

“When we get done plowing we have to go out and patch,” said Mike Robison, street maintenance supervisor. “You’ve got to soften the big ones up. That’s what we are trying to do. You’re going to have them, but soften them.”

Smith earlier this month asked the DOT to advance a project currently scheduled for 2018 that will treat Route 219 and part of Route 417 in the city with a 2-inch, single-course mill and overlay.

Smith received a letter from DOT regional director Frank Cirillo dated Feb. 6 that noted moving the project to this year is not possible because it’s currently in the design phase to “determine the most appropriate treatment and corresponding funding availability.

“In the meantime, we will maintain US 219 and NY 417 within the city with state forces until this project advances to construction in 2018,” the letter stated.

City officials plan to meet with members of the DOT soon to discuss road repair options for the upcoming summer. Surdej confirmed the city and state have been in discussion about a potential meeting.

“We’ll meet with the city to see if we can come up with a longer-term solution to help them out in any way,” she said.

Salamanca has a maintenance agreement with the DOT to allow city crews to maintain state roads that pass through the city, Smith said. In Salamanca, these include Central Avenue as Route 219; Wildwood Avenue, Clinton Street and Broad Street as Route 417; and Center Street as Route 353.

Smith said he has also been working cooperatively with State Sen. Catharine Young’s office for her assistance in the matter.

Carpenter said he is looking forward to the upcoming week, as mild temperatures will allow his crew to continue cold patching. But crews are seemingly counting down the days until asphalt pits open in mid-April.

“As soon as the blacktop plant opens — which is generally April 15, barring no problems with the plant — we’ll be right on it,” Carpenter said. “As soon as it gets here, we’re on it.”

Robison quickly added, “We have to be.”

Smith said his office, the DPW and other city departments are handling about 10 calls a day on the conditions of the city streets, including non-state roads like Main and East and West State streets. He said he is “proud” of the work the DPW is doing on repairing problem spots.

“Rob and Mike and their gang have been going above and beyond the call here to try and keep the city streets passable,” he said.