Pothole season upon us, it’s back to the work routine for Woolwich road crews

Woolwich’s roads are much less busy these days, but there’s a full crew now out dealing with that quintessential sign of spring: potholes.

After a couple of weeks of rotating schedules and other hurdles related to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the township this week got its public works crews back on something of a routine.

“As of Monday, we are back to a full staff complement,” said director of infrastructure Jared Puppe.

That said, there are new guidelines in place to allow workers to maintain physical distancing, and to address health and safety concerns, he noted.

“In regards to outdoor staff, they are continuing to complete necessary maintenance activities in our facilities, parks and on critical infrastructure assets, under new COVID-19 safe working protocols,” added chief administrative officer David Brenneman in an email.

Road maintenance work began in earnest starting this week. The township’s gravel roads are particularly in need of attention.

“The freeze-thaw cycle was particularly bad this year.”

The gravel roads need grading, while potholes require filling, the latter getting a boost with the arrival of a “hotbox” asphalt patcher that allows for hotmix asphalt to be applied, blending in to the roadway, rather than simply shovelling in some cold patch.

Woolwich is renting the equipment, having put on hold its plans to buy one this year.

“I think the hotbox will be an improvement,” said Puppe.

One of the first stops was High Street in Elmira, which had a series of potholes filled Tuesday, much to the delight of resident

Kevin Conlin, who had long complained about the surface of the street.

“They were just here this afternoon, so that deals with the problem,” he said Tuesday.

High Street and adjacent roads are slated to be reconstructed. The original timeline was 2021, but that’s been pushed back a year for a variety of reasons, including regional plans for reconstructing a stretch of Church Street East.

With the work at least two years away, that made patching the road more pressing, said Puppe.

The township has no large reconstruction plans on the books for 2020, but some $3 million in paving projects.

While noting the greatly reduced volume of traffic on the roads makes it an ideal time to do paving jobs, Puppe said municipalities are still waiting to hear from province about what kind of construction work can be carried out. Last week, Queen’s Park expanded the shutdown of workplaces to include much of the construction trade.

The township will be pushing ahead with some road projects, but others are being juggled just now as staff narrows a list of essential services.

“But we’re still focused on regular activities,” he said.