Transportation Manager for the City of Lloydminster Dave Henning says crews have been repairing potholes for the past week ever since residential snow clearing finished.
“We use an instant road repair or a temporary patch for now until the ground temperature warms up enough. Realistically, they like to see a ground temperature 7 °C so products you put in can adhere to the existing product that’s there already.”
Potholes occur when moisture enters cracks in the pavement, which then expand due to freezing.
“There is probably a good chance that we won’t get them all finished. There is just that many and there is only so much available staff and resources,” Henning says the number of potholes in the city hasn’t changed from previous years.
High traffic zones such as Highway 16, Highway 17, College Drive and intersections with turning lanes may be extremely affected by potholes due to the pressure on the asphalt.
“Try to avoid them if you can. One thing to be aware of is if there is water sitting in the middle of the street there is a good chance there might be a pothole right there. Any of the main high traffic areas will be affected the worst because of the amount of traffic on them.”
Henning says damage caused by potholes should be claimed through your insurance company. He says the insurance company will contact the City of Lloydminster if it’s pertinent to the claim. The City is asking drivers to slow down, drive with caution and report any potholes to the City’s website under ‘Report a Concern’.
“We’re out there patching as much we can, but we’re concentrating on the high traffic areas, which are our priority one plow routes, so is if there are some bad areas in residential we would like to look at those as well.”