City of Calgary seeing three times as many potholes this year

Rough ride getting to all those potholes It's springtime in Calgary – pothole season – and the freeze-and-thaw winter has proven challenging for city crews to begin repairing roads.

The City of Calgary says potholes are everywhere and crews are busy trying to keep up with demand to fill them.

"We've seen a greater amount of potholes this season – almost three times the number of potholes on our system at this time of year," said Troy McLeod, director of roads.

"We're just out doing repairs as well as very versatile as far as snow and ice control season."

To permanently fix potholes, crews need dry pavement and warm weather, and that's been tricky this winter season, with the constant battle between freeze and thaw.

"So far, this year, we repaired 1,300 potholes," McLeod said.

"A little bit less than last year at this time, (with) 2,900 we had repaired at this time, but this winter has been a bit different than last year."

The city says it filled 16,000 potholes last year, spanning across summer months and even into the fall.

McLeod says the city's budget to repair potholes on local roads is around $6.5 million.

He says the city takes several factors into consideration before filling them in.

"It's basically on severity and safety," McLeod said.

"If we have locations that have high volume or cycling on those routes, we definitely want to get those repaired."

If you want to report a pothole, you can call 311 or visit calgary.ca/potholes, where you can place potholes that need fixing on an interactive map. https://maps.calgary.ca/potholes/