Moisture falls into the cracks in pavement and freezes and expands the crack. Traffic pounds the pavement and breaks down the asphalt or concrete. It didn't take long for the constant freezing and thawing to create some fairly large holes. To make winter-time repairs, street crews use a special mixture that works in cold temperatures, but is a lower grade than a summer mix. The city uses a semi-permanent repair method.
Crews remove water and debris from the pothole, then square up the sides of the patch area.
Once all sides of the hole are squared off, they place the mix in the hole. Then they roll over the mix with a machine and open the section to traffic. Donaldson said he wants to make people aware of the service but also wants people to know the nature of it. We encourage people to call in if it is a pothole, but if their whole street is damaged, we are not going to be able to fix the whole street. Right now we are accepting calls for potholes.