Pave it correctly right out of the gate..then you wouldn’t have so many potholes.. Make sure who ever does the paving does it right and guarantees it.

I agree, spit and bubble gum only last a few weeks! A waste of time and money, do it better the first time!

Potholes and paving are not related.

Potholes are caused by water seeping into air pockets in the pavement and then freezing and thawing causing the expand/shrink cycle to break the pavement apart causing potholes. Potholes have absolutely nothing to do with how paving is done.

I just hope City Council realizes that the $3.5M regular budget is a JOKE. The city needs to remember that we have 600 KM’s of roadways to maintain. That $9.8M they spent last year is what should be spent every year!!

This past year the main roads in PG were actually fairly good. But just venture a little of the main paths and you could easily still find Prince George roads in need of patching or re-paving.

So while some might think that $9.8M fixed the problem and now we can go back to $3.5M, they are sadly mistaken. All that does it put bandaids on the problem instead of bringing up the roads to an acceptable level.

One only has to drive in Quesnel, Williams Lake and Kamloops to see what roads should look like. PG needs to keep up especially if they want to attract citizens to come here and live. Don’t forget the population keeps dropping here. People have options…..they can leave for greener pastures.

City Council, please keep the road repair budget at 9.8M it’s part of the solution to making PG a nice city to live in.

potholes will forever be an issue in PG for the above reason. We have extreme cold, and hot temperatures. Pavement can only withstand so much change. Especially this year, we’ve had plenty of warm days, followed by cold.

I have to agree with the comments of above that the freeze thaw cycle is to severe, and getting worse with climate change. Maybe we need to look at fibred asphalt, like in Portland cement concrete.

I know it’s probably too much to ask, but I wish they’d consider filling the cracks in on the shoulder at the Hart end of foothills. Those cracks are big enough to swallow a Nissan Leaf and do real damage to most cars if they had to pull over – and then there’s the humorous painting of a bicycle on that part of the road – mountain bike might be able to ride it, but a bike lane it’s not.

Where are the potholes they fill..on the paved roads.. What do they fill the potholes with..pavement..or cold fill..I see a relationship between the two. Filling a pothole with cold fill then packing it with a hand packer won’t last a week..to do it correctly you must heat the entire pothole with tiger torch for a few minutes to get the pavement hot enough so it’s able to bond with the fill..and the fill must be hot as well..then need to compact it very well to make sure there is a good bond. Also heating the pothole to evaporate any lose water is a must as to avoid the freeze previously mentioned.

Years of neglect…everyone has a excuse .. from the posters here to every politician in the last 30 years … we need to stop whining and fix the roads/water/sewer… we have to many Kms of roads . no more new subdivisions till we can handle what we have . thats my opinion!

fill the pot holes correctly the first time and you wouldn’t have to redo them so often.
you pour filler into holes full or partly full of water and the first freeze afterwards pops the patch loose, and then the patch destroys itself as vehicle drive over it…
do I have the answer, no, but that is one suggestion that will sure help… yes I have seen them filling potholes partly full of water.

Years ago the city used to employ what a fellow running it called “the toaster”, it was a big propane fired grill that was used to heat the asphalt in the area of the patch. I think the biggest problem that they have with their current repair method is that they are cold patching the holes, they just pound out again as soon as the next vehicle hits.

Love how people compare every other major city in BC with us and potholes for one do your homework and 2 we are the only major city in BC that deals with heavy snowfall and severe freeze/thaw cycles no other major city in BC can compare to PG and potholes are a part of the package deal with it.

Years ago the City tried a method on River Rd that is used in Sweden and it worked. Then they dug the patch up and did it the usual way and every few months they had to repair it again. When asked why they didn’t use the Swedish method when it worked they said that the new head of the streets said that was not the way things were done in Canada. Guess who the head of streets was?

Crcssing the intersection of 97N from Austin Road East to Austin Road West or going North and turning unto Austin Road West there was until yesterday (for weeks) a suspension busting and tire bruising huge field of potholes, deep and sharp edged. Now it has been so-called repaired but it is still very rough and uneven! Is this the new standard? OMG!

*One only has to drive in Quesnel, Williams Lake and Kamloops to see what roads should look like.*

Agreed! Now one ought to be unafraid and ask the obvious question: WHY and keep asking it!

PVal, you are suggesting a routine that involves heating and drying the pothole, blowing out all the lose dirt, then filling it in with a proper hotmix, followed by compacting and sealing. Automated pothole patching machines do all that. The operator controls the whole sequence from the cab of the vehicle. Perhaps somebody will be daring enough to use 21st century technology…or not!

Newly paved roads in Prince George do not make 3years before they are finished and ready for repaving. The highways roads last for years and years and years with no potholes.

PRinceGeorge, I thought we tried one of those machines here a year or two ago.. Not sure what happened during the trial.

P Val, the results were – it won’t work here according to Bill Gaal – status quo still better. Now, skeptically, I think the results were – will cost 10 jobs – won’t work here.

There are 2 styles of patching cold fill and hot fill

Cold fill uses a type of asphalt that can be put into a hole filled with water then tamped down and it forces the water out it is the most common type of patch out there and effective when the ground is below freezing but heavy traffic will pound it out

Hot fill is normal asphalt is used where the water is removed the hole is heated and the asphalt is heated works well in warm weather however not very effective where ground temperature is below zero as it cools too fast and tends to crack fast. THis is normally used during the summer and fall months when tempurature of the ground is above zero

The freeze/thaw theory is only valid to a point, like in the spring and fall. During the summer, have a look, everytime we get a decent rainfall, potholes appear. Now why would that be?

I still say that proper sub-base and base construction would eliminate most pot holes. (some pot holes may develop due to surface damage)
Proper sub-base prep. depends on many factors, soil composition, water table, drainage and more. To do this properly in some areas can be extremely expensive, but how much are the repair costs “down the road”?
metalman.

Ski51 and P Val, yes they had a demonstration of a pothole patching machine. I have done a lot of research about the different types on the market. The one they looked at was not very good. They should look at those that work very well in cold climates, like in Alaska, Montreal and other places where freeze and thaw cycles are as common as here. There may have been a lack of enthusiasm to go to the trouble of finding out the differences and then pick one that works and comes with performance guarantee.

Does this town have any streets that are labelled as a “no truck zone”?
If we didn’t have 100 000 lbs. legally travelling every street, they wouldn’t be pounded out as bad.

The patch machine was junk sorry to say. It creates a fairly large bump which eventually kills the entire roadway as seen on highway 16 – which had to be completely repaved afterwards. The heavy trucks were driving in the left lane because the right lane was so bad.

Heating cold patch does not make it a hot patch. Hot patch comes from the asphalt plant which I do not think is open yet. They are two different compounds.

If a pothole is filled with any water in it or water is getting into it, the hydraulic action of water is one reason that blows the pothole back out not just the weight of the vehicle.