Pothole season causing headaches
The City of Regina’s acting director of roadways and transportation is hoping for two things: Summer to come quickly and patience from motorists.
“We have to be very alert to respond to any dangerous occurrences, any big potholes that could create hazards,” Les Malawski said Wednesday.
Pothole season usually peaks later in March or April, but the warm and wet weather has revealed the damage to city roads sustained during the winter freeze. Now, Malawski just wants the roads to dry so crews can do more than provide a band-aid solution.
“Fixing potholes at this time of the year, it’s a temporary solution because we use cold mix (asphalt). The pothole is filled with water or sometimes there’s ice at the bottom, so the asphalt doesn’t stick as well as hot mix in warm weather,” Malawski said.
He asks for patience from residents because responding to all of the city’s road hazards in the spring can be challenging with only four trucks, even when they’re running 20 hours a day. Malawski said priorities are set by inspectors who determine the speed of the concrete deterioration. Crews try to fix major potholes within 24 hours.
If a bad pothole is on a high-traffic road (other than the Ring Road) that can’t be immediately fixed, barricades go up.
Regina resident Sarah Turnbull wants to know why there wasn’t any signage near the large pothole that caused extensive damage to the bumper, axle and a tire of her Subaru crossover vehicle.
“I was just driving along and the road caved in. And it’s not like we live in an earthquake zone,” Turnbull said.
While driving near her house on the 2200 block of Wallace Street on Monday night, she heard a sound loud enough that caused her to think she had run over a small child. She had actually run over a small crater.
“It was about 15 feet wide by five feet and it went down two or three feet,” Turnbull said.
While waiting for a tow truck to move her vehicle, she stood on the edge of the hole and it began to crumble underneath her. That’s when she decided to keep three other vehicles from having the same experience before moving a recycling bin near the hole as a marker. By the next morning, she said, the city had filled it with gravel.
Her concerns now are about getting her vehicle repaired and, because it was a single-vehicle collision — getting the $700 SGI deductible covered for damage she believes is the city’s fault.
She’s discouraged by the city’s track record: Of the 209 claims received by the city in 2013-14, only 23 were paid out.
“I think it’s unacceptable,” Turnbull said.
If you wish to report a pothole, call the City of Regina at 306-777-7000 weekdays between 8 a.m. and 4:45 p.m.