Pothole season comes early to Waterloo region
City crews work around the clock to patch potholes
It's usually a sign of spring, but potholes have made an early return to their natural habitat of regional roads and city streets.
"This is not normal for January," said Emil Marion, the manager of transportation operations for the Region of Waterloo.
Since Jan. 12, the region has seen temperatures fluctuate between freezing and mild days.
That freeze-thaw cycle allows water to sneak down into asphalt. When the water freezes, it expands and moves the asphalt. When it gets warm, the ice melts and then there's a weak spot in the road.
The short term fix is to patch the potholes, Marion said. But ideally, they'd do preventative work to avoid the problem in the first place.
City crews out all day and night
Christine Koehler, traffic operations manager for the City of Waterloo, said they've started to receive phone calls from residents in the last week as potholes appear.
"We are seeing more potholes being reported to us and we are responding to those reports on a 24-hour basis," she said, noting crews that are patching potholes are generally the ones driving snowplows at this time of year.
Regional roads in rural areas are generally not patched overnight because it's dark, making it hard for crews to see what crews they're doing, creating unsafe conditions for the workers, Marion said.
Residents are encouraged to report potholes. In the cities, even if the potholes are on a regional road, you can call the city in which the pothole is located.
Potholes on roads outside of the city can be reported to the region.
Koehler said if people report a pothole, information such as the street name, an approximate address and the location of the pothole in the street — such as if it's in the second lane from the left of a four-lane road — is key to helping crews get to the potholes quickly.