City grapples with worst potholes in recent memory

The city of Hamilton will pay up to $1.4 million to fix a stretch of Main Street West riddled with potholes.

The money will come from a 50-50 mix of money set aside in Ward 1, where the street is, and the city's capital reserves.

"It is inappropriate to wait for a fatal accident to act," said Aidan Johnson, councillor for Ward 1, in his request for council approval of the emergency funds Wednesday.

"It is urgent that the potholes and the swerving created by those potholes be remedied."

It's been a rough season for the roads.

The city has received a record number of claims that the pockmarked roads have caused damage to private vehicles, and it's not even spring yet, when the complaints usually roll in.

The city's general manager of public works says he's never seen such a bad year for potholes.

There are "hotspots" all over the city.

And a big dump of snow forecast for Thursday night will delay even the piecemeal approach to fixing them that was decided on for Main West last night.

"It's not even spring yet, and spring is when these things happen," said John McLennan, who oversees legal claims against the city over issues like potholes.

Plows that will be out for this new round of snow will exacerbate the problem, digging up old potholes and possibly creating new ones. And that's all before the ground thaws again.

'I've never seen it this bad'

"The biggest problem in the pothole world is freeze-thaw," McLennan said. "It's been that kind of winter."

Warmer temperatures loosen the asphalt, and then cold temperatures freeze it again.

Winters are getting increasingly warmer, public works director Dan McKinnon said. So the potholes are getting worse.

"It's destroying the road surface much faster than what we would have seen 20 years ago," McKinnon said.

"Just anecdotally, I've never seen it this bad."

'An expectation for the motorist to avoid the pothole'

There's a record number of people lined up claiming damages against the city because of the potholes.

McLennan said the city has fielded about 240 claims this year. That already outpaces the highest year on record, with 197 claims.

He expects the city will receive more than 500 claims this year.

More than a quarter of the claims have come in on Burlington Street, followed by Rymal Road, Main Street West, Aberdeen and Upper James Street.

The city doesn't pay out on all of the claims – only about 10 per cent, McLennan estimated. The city is required to maintain roads to certain standards, depending on how busy the road is. So just because you hit a pothole doesn't mean the city was negligent under provincial standards.

There's still "an expectation for the motorist to avoid the pothole," he said. "If you go slow enough, you're not going to damage your car."

'By far the No. 1 issue'

A discussion of the plan at council zeroed in on the controversial pot of money that councillors from Wards 1 to 8 get every year to address infrastructure needs, known as "area rating."

Johnson admitted he hasn't spent any of his money this term on fixing roads.

Instead, Ward 1 residents participate in a budget vote to divvy up the $1.5 million yearly on projects like sidewalks, library improvements, parks and, in 2017, a facade for a historic theatre.

Donna Skelly, councillor for Ward 7, voted to support the plan but said she has a "real problem" with that spending pattern.

"The state of our roads in the city of Hamilton is by far the No. 1 issue that I hear about" from constituents, she said.

"We can't be spending our area rating on anything but roads when we have them in this condition."

Johnson's point that Main Street West is used by people from all over the city also drew her scorn. People from all over the city use Mountain accesses and Upper Wentworth Street to get to and from Lime Ridge Mall, she pointed out.

Johnson agreed that the "current area rating system is unfair" when viewed through a citywide lens, but defended his use of the funds as being within the rules established for the program.

Jason Farr, Ward 2 councillor, has also held community votes over how to spend his area rating money.