Freeze-thaw cycle undid recent pothole patching work, city says

A recent pothole patching blitz in Sudbury was hampered due to the weather.

Last week, the City of Greater Sudbury announced that all available contractors and city crews would be out doing pothole repairs on the main roads.

Tony De Silva, the city's roads and operations engineer, says crews went out and patched the holes. However, he says the freezing rain that fell soon after undid that work.

"The freeze-thaw cycle on Sunday sort of didn't let the pothole patching blitz that we did last for much longer than a few days," he said.

"It is frustrating but it's the nature of the beast."

De Silva says during the summer, the city has access to a hot mix asphalt from local suppliers.

"That really works well because it bonds to the existing asphalt," he said.

"In the wintertime, we don't have that material. The plants are shut down and then of course the road is cold, so there's no bonding that takes place."

As a result, De Silva says the city has to use a different material to patch potholes, usually a cold mix product.

"We also use recycled asphalt," he said.

"When it gets really bad like it did in the last week or two, then we organize supplies from Toronto where we bring up warm mix asphalt."

Whatever is used, De Silva says the city doesn't expect pothole patches to last in the winter.

"There's no bonding the existing pavement surface so the best we can hope for is as long as possible type of thing."

As for a long term fix to keep the roads pothole free, De Silva says there isn't an easy fix.

"The only other way really is to figure out these locations prone to potholes in the summertime and target them and get them patched up in the summertime," he said.

"But often times what happens is we recognize the areas that are bad now and we patch them in the summertime, but then there's always other areas that pop up."