Published: April 30, 2008 01:14 am            

WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM: Pothole season plagues area roads

After an unusually hard winter, plentiful are the dips, ripples and potholes marring area roads.

Municipal highway directors aren’t moving to get every one of them fixed pronto. Skyrocketing material costs have some trying to gauge the difference between hazardous and merely inconvenient.

In the City of Lockport, where pothole dodging could be construed as an Xtreme sport, Streets Superintendent Michael Hoffman reports his crews will start out patching only the worst holes first. The weather isn’t hospitable to best fixes yet, he said.

“There hardly are ever any surprises with potholes, we know where they are,” he said. “We’re asking for residents to be a little patient so we can do the best job ... and get the best bang for our buck.”

“Cold” patch, a gooey, chunky substance, can be applied into holes now, but it’s not very cost-effective, according to Hoffman. It’s currently going for in excess of $80 per ton, almost twice last year’s price for liquid “hot” patch. Also, he said, cold patch will eventually break up, especially if the patch isn’t sealed. Hot patch and sealants can’t be applied until the air temperature is consistently 65 to 70 degrees or warmer.

“I know some people are anxious for us to get every hole filled now, but if they’re livable, we’re going to hold off for the hot material,” Hoffman said. “It’s cheaper and more long-lasting.”

There was considerably more freeze-thaw activity this past winter than normal, causing the abundant crops of potholes that are seen now, area highway superintendents said.

Not every bump in the road can be blamed on Mother Nature, though. Dips in pavement caused by sunken utility digs — signified by their square, rather than circular, shape — are supposed to be tended to by the phone, cable, gas and electric contractors who carved into the street. When the dips are determined to be their handiwork, it’s city policy to require the contractors, not city workers, to patch them.

“Eighty five to 90 percent of the time, they do,” Hoffman said.

Engineering and streets department employees are set to begin their annual “rating” of all city streets shortly. Streets rated the worst-off will go to the top of the list for resurfacing this summer. About 12 to 15 streets will be treated after mid-June, Hoffman said, likely including sections of High and Washburn streets.

Local municipalities all are set to receive an average 20 percent increase in state “Chips” money for roadwork. While Hoffman anticipates the city’s increase will allow it to do as much roadwork as last year, Royalton Highway Superintendent Terry Nieman said his town’s increase barely helps offset higher material prices.

“We’re getting $30,000 more. That will just cover my diesel fuel increases, never mind the price of asphalt and everything else,” he said. “(Construction) material costs have increased 100 percent in the past three years. We just keep slipping; we do what we can.”

Royalton highway crews have driven town roads twice in the past month, ferreting out and filling potholes with cold patch. Two of the worst-off, Root Road in Gasport and Foot Road in Wolcottsville, are checked weekly.

The town probably will rebuild Root Road, from Slayton Settlement to Townline Road, this year. It’s a major project with a major price tag — Nieman’s early guesstimate is $175,000 — that has to be undertaken since the Wruck Road canal bridge was shut down by the state last year. Root Road has since become an alternative route to the town’s interior and it’s in bad shape, Nieman said: damaged by heavy farm vehicles and too narrow for two lanes of traffic.

The road should be widened and rebuilt, maybe over two construction seasons to help shorten the periods when it has to be closed, he said.

Also in the works in Royalton is widening and resurfacing of Hollenbeck Road and sealing of roads throughout the hamlet of Gasport, for the first time in seven years.



Hit a pothole?

Call in complaints about poor road conditions to the appropriate highway department:

• City of Lockport, 433-1267

• Town of Lockport, 439-9522

• Cambria, 433-8829

• Hartland, 735-7234

• Newfane, 778-8844

• Pendleton, 625-8033

• Royalton, 772-2363

• Somerset, 795-3866

• Wilson, 751-6691

        

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