# Winter Weather and Potholes



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Background
In places with extreme swings in temperatures between seasons, road pavement can easily buckle, resulting in potholes when the weather warms. How does your city cope with this problem, from both a preventative (technology) and detective (fixing) standpoints?

*Shorter winter curbs crater toll*
March 22, 2007 
Jack Lakey
Toronto Star Staff Reporter










It's pothole season, and the driving is bumpy.

But believe it or not – and a lot of you won't – potholes this year aren't as bad as in 2006, and nowhere near the scourge they were two years ago.

The city has the numbers to prove it, and so do we.

Last week, we asked readers to tell us about the worst potholes around the GTA. We received upwards of 100 responses, replete with details of bone-rattling, car-shaking encounters with craters that caused flat tires, bent rims, damaged suspensions and short tempers.

"The entire street is a disaster!" said Sandra Gaspar, describing Frimette Cres., a residential street near Eglinton Ave. W. and Scarlett Rd., in an email. We checked; she's right.

Utility cuts, made in the road to allow access to pipes and wires, prompted an email from Scott Delaney, saying the northbound curb lane of Dufferin St., between Dupont St. and Davenport Rd., is "atrocious," due to deterioration of asphalt patches. "Why are the utility companies allowed to do such pathetic repair work?"

Cortney Cassidy sent an email describing a driver's encounter with a water-filled "nightmare" in the curb lane of Eglinton Ave. E., near Mt. Pleasant Rd. She, as a pedestrian, got the worst of it. When the vehicle hit the pothole, it "splooshed me like no other, when I was walking by the other day!" My friend was sitting in the Swiss Chalet, laughing hysterically because I didn't see it coming."

There's an abundance of evidence from readers that the 2007 pothole crop is as bounteous as ever, but the numbers suggest otherwise.

In 2005, a long, bitterly cold winter with lots of snow, Toronto logged about 6,400 road and sidewalk "service requests" as of March 15, most about potholes, says Roberto Stopnicki, a director of transportation services.

In 2006, service requests to March 15 dropped by half, about 3,200. As of March 15, 2007, requests were around 1,300, about 20 per cent of the 2005 figure.

The condition of local roads doesn't seem better, and that's being polite. So what's different over the last two years?

"The severity of the pothole problem is usually a reflection of the kind of winter we've had," said Stopnicki. "When you hit one, you don't care how many there are on the road; you're bothered by it, and we understand that. But what we know – because we have the numbers and are looking at the bigger picture – is that this year, potholes are just not as serious a problem as in previous years."

We've also noticed a decline in pothole complaints to The Fixer over the past two years.

In 2005, we received 326 pothole complaints, 104 logged in January and February – an earlier than normal start to pothole season. 

More than 50 came in the third week of February alone.

Last year, we'd received just 50 complaints up to March 18. So far in 2007, complaints totalled 38, prior to asking readers last week to tell us about them.

In 2005, winter arrived in November and continued well into March, which Stopnicki says was the main cause of the huge number of potholes.

Last winter, December and February provided regular winter weather, while the rest of the season was exceptionally mild.

In 2007, winter didn't arrive until mid-January. While temperatures since have been colder than average, snowfall was lower, lessening the effect of seeping moisture, a major factor in potholes' formation, he said. "When our people are not needed for clearing snow from sidewalks and bus stops ..., we can use them to patch potholes and do road repairs." That explains an anomaly in the city's figures on the number patched over in the past three years.

In 2005, about 47,000 potholes were patched, mostly in the early months of the year, but in 2006 – when service requests dropped by half – the number of filled potholes increased to 53,000. As of March 15 this year, 20,200 potholes had been filled.

With the arrival of spring, the problem should ease, but it also creates ideal freeze-and-thaw conditions to grow potholes.

With about 30 patching crews – about 120 people – working full-time, Stopnicki says they're making good progress keeping up with this year's pothole crop.


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## FutureLOTpilot (Apr 6, 2004)

I hate those things, but here on Long Island they seem to fix em up pretty fast as soon as winter ends. Just today I saw street cleaning crews clearing the sand they put down for last week's snow. On the other hand there are some potholes that seem to never get fixed.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Moving from salt to sand to melt snow on streets should be a major help, and there are some chemical sprays that can do the job these days as well. Some of them can even be used prior to a snowstorm.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

Dutch Motorways A1, A12, A28 and A50 have often bad pavement around the forested Veluwe area in winter. Seems to happen there more than other regions.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

Interesting article...

On a more personal note, they finally did something about the massive potholes on my street lately. 
The snow literally turned a drive into feeling like you are driving down a dirt road.


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## DarkLite (Dec 31, 2004)

*Its a wonder how much money is spent to fix these roads!*


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## Xelebes (Apr 1, 2007)

We complain and complain about the potholes. The city has a hard time hiring people to fix them so currently they have 10 crews going about fixing them, 24 hours a day for the next two months. It's said that Edmonton has about 5,000 potholes a year on its streets. This year there are more since we had more moisture during the winter, so it is around 6,800.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

* Rural county's £16m pothole bill
Millions of pounds will be spent on repairing potholes in Surrey this year, the county council has said.*

The authority said £16m would go on repairing potholes and other road defects under its maintenance scheme.

Problems in Surrey were aggravated by roads built on clay which held water, and lorries using what were originally rural tracks, the council said.

It followed a survey by the Asphalt Industry Alliance which said England had a £1.64bn repair-fund shortfall.

Pounding juggernauts

Surrey's transport strategic director Andy Roberts said: "This report demonstrates that it is not just Surrey's residents who are worried about potholes but we do not take that as an excuse to be complacent.

"During the coming year we will be spending about £16m on potholes and other road defects as part of our overall maintenance programme."

He said many roads in Surrey were built on clay which shrinks in the summer and expands in the wetter months.

This meant that water got under the surface when it was wet, storing up problems for the winter, he explained.

And he said Surrey had twice the national average level of congestion, while many of its rural tracks were originally no more than cart tracks and not built to carry the "juggernauts that pound along them nowadays".

Mr Roberts said ultimately it was the government that needs to recognise "the urgent need to allocate more funding to road maintenance, before our roads deteriorate beyond repair".

But the government has said it gave local authorities £3bn in the past five years to halt the deterioration of roads.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/surrey/6518001.stm

Published: 2007/04/02 11:33:48 GMT


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Apr 6, 2018
*Potholes as flower pots? Brussels protester brightens up damaged roads*
_Excerpt_

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Brussels man has begun planting flowers in potholes across the Belgian capital to highlight what he says is the sorry state of many of the city’s roads.

Armed with a bag full of flowers, soil and a small plastic watering can, Anton Schuurmans walks around town planting daffodils or geraniums in every pothole he finds, sometimes braving heavy traffic to reach the middle of busy crossings.

“Pedestrians, bicycles, people with their cars, everybody is being annoyed by these potholes,” said 29-year-old Schuurmans, standing outside Brussels’ gothic cathedral, where he had just planted several flowers.

People stopped and took pictures on their phones as they walked by the flowers, many agreeing that the potholes had become a problem.

“There are many potholes in the street in front of my house, so we hear a lot of noise every evening as people drive over them quickly,” said Mathieu Taziaux, who works in Brussels.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/bel...ster-brightens-up-damaged-roads-idUSKCN1HD1P8


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