Report-A-Pothole Line Is Ringing
Old patches and new potholes appeared along Tyner Boulevard earlier this month 250News file photo
Prince George, BC – The City's Manager of Transportation says the pothole line started ringing a few weeks ago, when a melt revealed what this winter's freeze-thaw cycle left behind.
The 2014 budget has $1.04-million dollars set aside for pothole patching. Flavio Viola says repair efforts began several weeks ago, but were briefly stymied this week. "That little bit of snow we had sort of curtailed us as we dealt with that for a day, but we were back on potholes as of Thursday."
In a report that will go before City Council on Monday evening, Director of Operations, Bill Gaal, tables the extent of the 'hole' problem over the past five years:
| Year | Potholes Patched |
| 2009 | 26,029 |
| 2010 | 21,349 |
| 2011 | 12,847 |
| 2012 | 21,987 |
| 2013 | 15,280 |
Gaal notes Council has been consistently increasing the road rehab budget over the past few years. He writes, "As the volume of repaving increases, Administration expects a decrease in the number of potholes created on our road network."
Just under $10-million dollars will be spent on road and sidewalk projects this year (click here, for previous story) While the City has yet to release a list outlining this year's major paving projects, Gaal's report suggests Chief Lake Road, Lansdowne Road, North Nechako, Malaspina, Simon Fraser, Old Caribou Highway, and Giscome Road may see some of that new asphalt. He says the City expects to see significant potholes crop up on those routes, but writes, "Of these, the majority of roads for which there are concerns this year are included in the 2014 Road Rehab program and will be repaved this year. Those not on the list will receive increased attention to pothole repairs in efforts to preserve the road surface."
Comments
I think the patching crews and of course their supervisors need to take a course in road patching.
I am no scientist but
i seem to remeber a little bit from high school scince even though that was over 40 years ago.
you put patching material in a hole with water in it and no matter how hard you tamp, the first freeze and the water expands pushing the patch out. A big vehicle comes a long and breaks up the patch and the holeis back…
I cannot remember how many times I have seen this happen…. today it is patched tonight it freezes and in a couple of days teh hole is back.
I guess they get a warm fuzzy feeling being out in the ice, snow, and water making it look like they are accompishing something.
Not a very good speller either…..
bcracer, you got that right. A few years back when we had a Ministry o Highways they had a patching school in Cloverdale. They did a great job.
They used a tiger torch to dry out the pot hole and chipped it back to a healthy part of the pavement. There was a a compacter that hung on the tailgate of their truck to finish the job.
Cheers
There are large potholes on the corner by our house. This time last year they patched them 6 different times. The first few cars would run over the patch and within a few hours the hole was back. The best part was the 4 guys standing around while 1 guy worked.
Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that most of them are caused by graders. Train the grader operators not the pot hole fillers.
Oh yeah, that makes perfect sense. ??
I was thinking about how the city patches potholes. I think they should design a round core cutter that has various sizes available. You cut a perfectly round shape out of the pothole that extends into the harder pavement. Put in a manufactured rubberized pavement/concrete patch and pin it into the ground.
What ever happened to the city checking out other patching options like the following
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xS4f0YcetXU
It seems to me that doing the same things over and over and expecting different results says something about our city
Cool machine. It probably works great in Arizona.
What’s the number to the hotline?
Perhaps the quality of the asphalt needs to be looked at. It does not last and it has been like that for many decades.
There are pothole patching machines that do a great job in Alaska and other cold places, but for some reason they refuse to perform over here. Too bad.
What’s the number to the hotline?
The law of heat transfer is heat goes to cold, a few seconds with a tiger torch doesn’t work to cure the patch to the road, thirty years of using that routine to patch pg raids is proof.
Time to try a few minutes of heating including the surrounding area may be worth a try.
Also does counting patching the same hole numerous times count as more than one when they do this total? Because it shouldn’t. Do it once, do it correctly and move on.
Report a pothole here:
http://princegeorge.ca/infocentre/publicconsultation/engagement/Lists/Pothole%20Report/NewForm.aspx?Source=/infocentre/publicconsultation/engagement/pages/thankyou.aspx
I remember that The Three Stooges used to cover the hole in a floor with a carpet. Might work.
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