City road crews gear up to tackle Toronto potholes

The temperature is finally climbing after a long winter, and while the city is enjoying the thaw, it’s not such a great thing for roads as more potholes are popping up.

Last week, the city filled more than 3,700 potholes with even more expected to pop up this week.

Hector Moreno, manager of road operations for the City of Toronto, told 680News that 32 pothole crews are fanning out across the city.

“With the warmer temperatures this week, as the sun starts beating down on the pavement, some of that will start to melt and eventually it’s going to start cracking the pavement, and more potholes should start popping up,” Moreno said.

In a release, the city said this year it’s doubling the number of workers to fix potholes by assigning almost 100 workers to 25 to 30 crews over the next few weeks.

So far, the city hasn’t had as many potholes this year as compared to this time last year, and Moreno said that’s due in part to fewer freeze-thaw cycles.

“When you have prolonged cold temperatures, like we had in the month of February, well, the entire structure is frozen so therefore there is no real room for the structure to move up or down,” Moreno said.

 

However, he said the deep frost this year could cause even bigger problems.

“The concern is that we may, not necessarily end up with more potholes, but possibly maybe more road scathing and more road settlement,” Moreno said.

He said another downside of this week’s warmer weather is broken water mains.

“And along with that is the anticipation as the frost begins to thaw, we’re probably going to have a spike on the number of broken water mains,” Moreno said.

John Bordignon with State Farm Insurance said to avoid damaging your car, try to avoid potholes, but if you can’t do that he has this advice:

“Brake as quickly as you possibly can, but if you can, release the brakes at the point of impact. Let the vehicle drive over the pothole,” Bordignon said.

He said hitting a pothole at speed can cost between $500 to more than $1,000 damage to a car.

Bordignon also said to check your insurance policy to make sure you’re covered.

The city has repaired an average of 230,000 potholes annually over the past five years, and spends about $3.5 million a year to fix potholes.

Residents are being asked to report potholes online at toronto.ca/311.

The city said it usually repairs potholes within five days based on road traffic and how severe the pothole is.