More potholes in Halifax this year compared to 2024, municipality says

Halifax-area drivers are treading lightly amid thousands of new and old potholes.

Spring is here and potholes are in full bloom in Halifax, and according to the municipality, there are more this year compared to 2024.

“From Jan. 1 to today, we have completed about 3,200 pothole repairs. Compared to this time last year, we had completed about 2,500 pothole repairs, so we are seeing an increase this year,” says Laura Wright, public affairs officer with the Halifax Regional Municipality.

“I actually bicycle to work today and there are some areas where you have to merge into traffic a little more than it’s comfortable doing, so I think there needs to be more attention to getting these filled in,” says Halifax resident Greg Johnston.

“There’s been a couple where they are so deep, you could probably get a few people sitting in that,” says Lyren Palmer. “I am dodging around everywhere I go. If you have to swerve a little bit to get around it, you’re getting close to the other guy and maybe he’s doing the same thing, it becomes problematic.”

OKTire on Lady Hammond Road says they get about 10 calls a day just about bumps and clunks, which are likely caused from potholes.

“Customers are telling us that the roads are horrendous. It does cause a lot of problems with the front end specifically, front-end steering components. When you see that kind of deep pothole and somebody can’t see it and they hit it, it definitely will cause problems with the front end,” says store manager Chris Leslie.

“The amount of front-end work that we’re seeing as in steering suspension this year is quite significant. There’s a lot of it out there. Whether it’s pothole related or not, my crystal ball is broken but I can tell you that it probably has something to do with it.”

The municipality says there are around 2,453 pothole repairs to go, and the order is based on priority.

“Potholes can be repaired within seven to 30 business days for priority one potholes, and up to 12 months for priority two potholes. But it’s also important to note that priority one potholes are fixed before priority two potholes so that’s why you may see some potholes on some streets that are repaired immediately and some that take a little while longer to be addressed,” says Wright.

The province says it’s been a typical pothole season around Nova Scotia highways following the spring thaw. For the province, the repairs are prioritized based on safety.

“It’s springtime, so they are pretty bad right now, they always are. I don’t know if it’s just that everyone is busy with building buildings or there’s other construction projects going on, but I feel like they are always sort of an afterthought as opposed to being the priority when spring comes around,” says Palmer.

“I see that a lot of the potholes are just kind of circled around so the city knows that they are there but it’s concerning because they are only getting worse until they are fixed,” says Johnston.

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