THUNDER BAY — It's getting to the time of year that might be good for auto repair shops, but not so good for vehicle owners.
Potholes are developing on city streets, as happens toward the end of every winter when the freeze-and-thaw cycle causes asphalt to crumble, leaving crevices and craters behind.
Ryan Love, acting roads manager for the City of Thunder Bay this week, said "So far, it's not a horrible pothole season. We're not getting a whole lot of complaints come in, or calls to dispatch."
Nonetheless, he said Wednesday, crews are being dispatched daily to deal with any potholes that do develop.
"So far, we are able to keep up. We do know our problem areas that are sending crews to daily, it seems like, where the asphalt is breaking up. We send them back. It's just that time of year where the water is still on the roadway. It's not getting into the catch basins or ditches, so we just have to tackle those ones regularly."
Love said the Python 5000, a self-propelled pothole-patching machine is being deployed virtually every day.
"It gets onto some of our busier streets. It does great work for us, with one person as opposed to three people doing the work. And it can use both cold-mix and hot-mix (asphalt). The unit itself does have a heated box, so it helps a big in this weather."
He said weather conditions in the coming weeks will determine the scope of the pothole problem this spring.
A slower melting of the snow is preferred, Love said, but "if we get those consecutive days of 15-degree weather, then it probably will get a bit more difficult."
Mitigation measures currently underway include steaming catch basins and culverts to melt accumulated ice, and using graders to push snow away from curbs so water can find its way from the road to gutters.
Thunder Bay residents can make report pothole locations online.
