I forwarded the comment to the city street engineering folks. Here’s some background explanation they provided:

The cuts you see in recently resurfaced roads are usually not cuts made by the City – they are more often private utilities (gas, electric, etc.) or private contractors.

Once a street is resurfaced or reconstructed, it goes onto a “Street Cut Moratorium” list, which means the street is not supposed to be cut for a certain number of years (the number of years depends on the classification of the road: arterial, collector, etc.). That said, if a gas main is leaking, or someone’s sewer lead fails, it obviously needs to be dug up and repaired. When a contractor applies for a permit to do such work, it is checked against the Street Cut Moratorium, and if it appears on the list, the entity requesting the permit needs to justify its necessity, so we can try to avoid as many such cuts as we can.

Sometimes such cuts are patched temporarily to maintain traffic on a street until the permanent patch can be installed by a paving contractor (this is particularly true in the winter when asphalt is not available). While it is usually the case that a patch in a street will not be as good as the surrounding pavement, if there is a particularly rough patch, or one that has been in place for a while and has not yet received a permanent repair, they should be reported to our department so that we can make sure the contractor responsible completes or corrects their work.

Contact for that is Dave Clemons: dclemons@a2gov.org

As regards your second question: I wish there was a forum where such questions could be asked and answered publicly. As much as I appreciate the work of Dave and Mary as mediators between city government and the people, it feels like there’s a missed opportunity for the city to be more responsive and transparent. (Cue Alan to say “LOL” here.)

Second comment is about street repair. Is there any connection between utility repair work (when done in the street) and city street engineering? I raise this question because there are several streets in my neighborhood that have been recently resurfaced or reconstructed and they ended up beautifully done. On each street, portions were subsequently dug up for utility repair then patched. Every one of the patches has sunk and created real driving hazards on these roads. It is clear that whoever “repairs” the street after utility work isn’t following the original construction details and it is causing quick deterioration of the streets. Far quicker than the weight of trucks/busses I would imagine.