February 22, 2018 (Flint, Mich)— The Director of Public Works for the City of Flint, Rob Bincsik, and Interim Transportation Director, Betty Wideman announced that a Pothole Patching Plan for 2018 is officially in place. The plan will serve as a guide for City crews as they try to get an early start on work to repair potholes on streets around Flint.
“We have already started patching potholes per the plan and will continue to patch until the frost is out of the ground,” said Bincsik. “We expect this ‘pothole season’ to be fairly severe since there is approximately three feet of frost in the ground right now.”
According to the plan, potholes commonly occur when the winter weather pattern consists of many freeze-thaw cycles. Extreme shifts in temperature cause potholes to form when moisture seeps into cracks in the surface of a road and then freezes, causing it to expand. When the ice thaws, it creates an empty space in the asphalt surface. When there is frequent heavy traffic on the surface the asphalt fails and cracks. Potholes must be repaired to stop the road from deteriorating, and to eliminate open holes from the roadway.
“We know potholes can be a nuisance to say the least,” said Betty Wideman Interim Director of Transportation for Flint. “Currently, we have all available crews out patching on the major streets. We will also be working on Saturdays as the weather allows. As crews are patching, they will also be backfilling any holes from the lead service line replacements that have sunk or settled.”
In order to provide pothole patching services in every area of the City, officials in the Street Maintenance Division have organized around 23 employees into four groups to address road repairs. The crews are utilizing the high-performance cold patch method to repair potholes until the hot mix asphalt becomes available in late spring. Workers will be deployed into mapped areas defined by the following boundaries:
Area 1: Carpenter Rd. to Robert T. Longway West City Limit to Saginaw St.
Area 2: Carpenter Rd. to Robert T. Longway Saginaw St. to East City Limit
Area 3: Robert T. Longway to Hemphill West City Limit to East City Limit
In an effort to repair large potholes that could potentially cause damage on main streets in Flint as soon as possible, Street Maintenance crews are assigned to major streets first. For the purposes of pothole patching, major streets are identified as streets such as Saginaw, Dupont, Atherton, Robert T. Longway, Flushing, etc. Once potholes on those streets have been addressed, crews will be deployed on a daily basis to residential areas throughout the City based on assigned mapped areas. Concurrently, two operators or trainees will be deployed to handle daily pothole complaints and to continuously canvass major streets to repair large potholes and re-patch potholes where the cold patch materials have come out of place.
Residents can report potholes in need of repair by calling the Street Maintenance Division at (810) 766-7343.
