Warm weather whips Winnipeg into pothole season months early
The warming weather in Winnipeg has brought pothole season to the city months early.
Instead of just clearing snow, the City of Winnipeg is also focusing its efforts on filling potholes.
"Right now, over the last few days with the warm weather and it carrying through the entire weekend, we have had a combination of both winter and spring services going on," said Jim Berezowsky, manager of streets maintenance for the city.
That means early in the mornings crews have been out salting main arteries after frost and rain. At the same time, he added, the freezing and thawing has caused a lot of surface failures.
The warm weather in Winnipeg broke a 15-year record on Sunday. In 2002 there were 44 consecutive hours of above 0 C temperatures in January. As of 2 p.m. on Sunday, Winnipeg had 58 hours above 0 C.
Berezowsky said the city is always prepared with a temporary cold mix asphalt material for the wild extremes in weather Winnipeg has seen over the last week.
"[When] it's a melting type of cycle, you're generally not out plowing as much so you can transition that staff into providing that cold asphalt mix," he said.
However, the weekend's moisture has meant that when the winter weather returns more potholes are likely on the way earlier than expected.
"That's something that we wouldn't necessarily be living with early or in mid-January. [It] is not typical of previous years," he said.
In 2011 there were similar temperatures, Berezowsky said, and they are prepared again this year if the off-season road repair is necessary. However, the warm stretch has brought some benefits.
"With this melt that we've seen over the last few days we've seen a lot of areas with the height of the snow really reduced so that's actually favourable for us," he said.
"As much as it sometimes poses a challenge to the road, these melts definitely help with our future spring runoff."
Berezowsky encouraged Winnipeggers to call 311 if they come across a large pothole and to drive with caution as the snow continues to melt quickly.
