Hang on to your steering wheel: More potholes than usual this year

It's going to be another bumpy ride in Fredericton this spring.

Mike Walker, manager of roadway operations with the City of Fredericton, says constantly changing winter weather led to more potholes than usually erupt this time of year.

"We certainly seemed to experience more than we're used to," he said.

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Typically, city crews don't even have to deal with potholes until March.

But with temperatures rising and dropping throughout the winter, crews started making temporary repairs to potholes in January.

"As soon as some water gets in there it really is ineffective," he said.  

A wet winter

During the winter, city roads saw a lot of water and ice, and spring hasn't been much better, Walker said.

Some streets are more pothole-prone than others because of the amount and kind of traffic, the age of the infrastructure and the conditions beneath the pavement.

"With the ground being completely saturated it weakens the subsurface soil and it just can't withstand the traffic load," he said.

"We do what we can to keep the potholes closed up, but they can open up very quickly and sometimes right next to each other."

The city may start fixing the potholes with asphalt as early as next week.  

Potholes for days

In some cases, Walker said the city has a strong infrastructure renewal program, and the pothole problem might be even worse without the reconstruction work done in previous years. 

"I think you can look around the city and see the majority of our streets are in very good condition," he said.

"The streets where we're seeing some issues, a lot of those are due for reconstruction and are planned for reconstruction."