Winter Road Maintenance: Pothole Repairs and Drainage

With the forecasted warm weather the City of Saskatoon is wrapping up its Priority Street Snow Removal Program and transitioning into surface drainage management and pothole repairs. The extended forecast is for very warm temperatures, which will dry up the potholes enough for a cold mix asphalt repair. The City has additional road crews assigned to address these locations as quickly as possible.

“Currently we have three City boiler trucks that are actively defrosting catch basins to improve drainage,” says Trent Schmidt, Acting Director of Public Works. “Since Wednesday, additional staff and equipment have been assigned to both day and night shifts to address and repair high-priority potholes, with up to 8 cold mix 1-ton trucks assigned to each shift. Pothole crews will continue repairing potholes day and night with gravel and cold mix asphalt until the frost is out of the ground in early May.”

City crews have been repairing potholes in the driving lane of Priority 1 & 2 streets since the snow started melting with a temporary cold mix asphalt to help prevent damage to vehicles and for safety. The cold mix is a semi-permanent patching material that can be used in temperatures above -10 degrees (with wind chill) even where moisture exists. So far this winter, 60 tonnes of cold-mix asphalt have been used to repair potholes (roughly the equivalent of 3450 potholes). Road crews are also maintaining approximately 567 utility cuts.

“As the warmer temperatures we’ve been experiencing are expected to continue, we’re reminding drivers to slow down when driving through puddles on the road” says Schmidt. “During spring melt, pools of water can cover deep potholes and drivers travelling at higher speeds could be caught by surprise, resulting in loss of vehicle control or vehicle damage.”

The Spring Pothole Blitz will begin over the next few weeks. Potholes will be prioritized and repaired on high-traffic, collector and arterial streets. Potholes on residential and other streets will be prioritized and repaired in coordination with the Neighbourhood Street Sweeping schedule, which begins May 1. Hot mix asphalt will be available at that point for permanent repair of potholes, and warning barricades may be installed until either temporary or permanent repairs can be made.

The Spring Sweeping Blitz is designed to collect the bulk of the debris left behind over the winter and benefits the Accelerated City Wide Neighbourhood Sweeping program by making it more efficient and cost effective. The Blitz will also remove sand and debris from medians where snow was stored. The Sweeping Blitz is scheduled to start on April 11 and will be focused along many of the same high-traffic streets as the Spring Pothole Blitz. There will be no parking enforcement applied during the Blitz programs as sweepers will go around parked vehicles.

The online Report a Pothole map is currently going through maintenance and upgrades and will be available April 1. So far this winter, residents have reported 185 potholes to the Customer Service Centre; 119 of these have been repaired. Residents are encouraged to report hazardous potholes on busy streets, blocked catch basins or other emergency road conditions to our 24-hour Customer Service Centre at 306-975-2476.

For more City of Saskatoon Public Service Announcements, News Releases, Traffic Detours and Service Alerts, visit saskatoon.ca or connect with the City of Saskatoon on Twitter and Facebook.