Mar 11, 2015 4 min read

April showers bring May flowers, but what emerges from melting March snow? Potholes.

‘Tis the season for patching pockmarked roads, thanks to the constant cycle of freezing and thawing that is characteristic of Pennsylvania winters, Department of Transportation spokeswoman Valerie Petersen said.

“As it freezes, it expands (the pavement), cracks it, then cars drive over it, crack it more and the pieces fall away,” Petersen said.

The melting snow doesn’t help matters, either. A pothole-filling crusade is under way on Interstate 70 from the West Virginia state line to Washington, Interstate 79 from Laboratory to the Greene County line and a stretch of Route 136 from Monongahela to Washington.

But the “cold patch” repairs are only a stopgap, and many crews must refill potholes with more permanent “hot patch” once asphalt plants open for the season in late March or early April.

“It’s a temporary fix,” said Washington Councilman Ken Westcott.

Westcott said city crews began to fill potholes on West Maiden Street and Allison Avenue. He said Wednesday potholes on Tyler Avenue were expected to be patched by today.

“One of the unfortunate things about Tyler Avenue is there are no storm drains,” he said.

That leads to water pooling and more potholes, and major construction will be done on Tyler Avenue this summer, he said.

North Strabane Township started tackling the pothole plague as soon as the snow and rain abated.

“We shouldn’t have any potholes,” said Harry Hayman, public works director. Hayman said they were lucky not to have any crater-sized holes, but crews filled smaller ones on South Spring Valley Road and McDowell Lane.

In Peters Township, many pesky potholes resurfaced. Public works crews have been forced to refill potholes that were patched just days prior.

“Some of them were hit with so much water,” said Public Works Director Peter Overcashier. “I expect that will be the case with a lot of potholes with all this water runoff. It’s very hard to get the material to stick in holes that are filling with water as you fill them.”

Crews already used more than two tons of the cold patch mix. Potholes were filled on Hidden Valley, Center Church, Sugar Camp and Bower Hill roads.

In Cecil Township, the list of pothole-riddled roads stretched even longer.

“We’ve been on a little pothole blitz out here,” said Bill Bottorff, director of public works.

He said the worst ones were on Profio, Grange, Fawcett Church and County Line roads. Cold patch has already been applied to those roads and nearly a dozen others in the township.

Bottorff said public works employees drive to Butler County to purchase 24 to 30 tons of a “high-performance” cold patch in order to avoid repatching roads several weeks later.

“It has good adhesion, and unless the road is scheduled for reconstruction, normally we won’t have to go back and replace those,” he said.

Waynesburg Borough is also getting ready to make a push on pothole repairs.

“Whenever we get snow removal out of the way, our attention will turn to potholes,” said Mike Simms, borough manager.

Simms said he noticed a few potholes around the borough but, so far, he has received only a handful of complaints. “Up until the last couple of days, people have been more concerned with snow and ice removal,” he said.

The borough also is preparing a project for later this summer that will include paving several streets, he said.

Petersen said it’s difficult to prioritize which roads to tackle first because “every pothole is a concern to somebody.” She said PennDOT takes into account the average daily traffic on roads, which is why highways are often addressed first. She said PennDOT will be able to pave more roads this year, in accordance with the state transportation funding plan.

“With Pennsylvania’s aggressive freeze-thaw cycle we will always see potholes, but the funding bill will ensure that our forces and the private sector can reconstruct roadways on which we could previously only patch potholes,” she said. “This, combined with revenue for much needed and long-delayed projects, will bring tremendous benefits to Pennsylvanians.”

Those wishing to report a pothole or other roadway concern to PennDOT can call 1-800-FIX-ROAD or select “submit feedback” on www.dot.state.pa.us.