‘This weather is ideal’: Lethbridge pothole repairs underway amid unseasonable warmth

While this winter's temperature swings pose challenges for city infrastructure, they allow crews to catch up on pothole repairs ahead of spring.

City of Lethbridge crews are taking advantage of the warm, dry temperatures by filling potholes throughout the city.

February weather typically features snow and ice, but with the current warmth, the city’s transportation operations department has shifted its focus from snow removal to pothole repairs.

“Even during nice winter weather, our city crews are out creating value for the taxpayers by fixing roads,” said Juliane Ruck, transportation operations manager with the City of Lethbridge.

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Currently, the city is using its asphalt recycling machine to produce hot asphalt.

Used asphalt that’s collected throughout the year from different job sites is recycled using the machine, allowing to be repurposed to fill potholes.

“The key with potholes is you don’t want water in there standing, so when its dry we can operate this operation up to -10 C,” said Ruck. “This weather is ideal to do this work.”

Being able to run the asphalt recycling machine comes with several benefits.

Ruck says cold asphalt has to be replaced several times throughout the cold weather season, but hot asphalt has a longer life expectancy and will last throughout the summer.

“It binds with the existing asphalt, and we don’t have to go back and fix,” she said. “This product holds up really well.”

The warm temperatures maybe enjoyable for humans, the drastic weather changes this year have caused havoc on the city’s roads.

“This warm/cold cycle is really hard because all of that water melted, seeped into these little cracks and then when it freezes again – or even at night when it gets colder – that creates expanding of the crack, loosing of the asphalt and people driving on it,” explained Ruck. “It’s just not ideal for our roads.”

Each year, the city receives about 800 repair requests for potholes on its 580 kilometres of road network.

“This is minor road maintenance to make the roads last longer and not need major repairs,” Ruck said.

Residents and motorists can report potholes to 311 or via the city’s website.