When a town left 'massive' potholes unfilled, these residents took matters into their own hands

Guerrilla pothole fillers take action in Quebec Quebecers in the town of Carignan got so frustrated with a terrible pothole, neglected by authorities, that they filled it in themselves.

Montreal — Potholes are a springtime frustration for anyone who drives around any city, but in the town of Carignan, just east of the South Shore, some residents have taken matters into their own hands.

Local business owners Xavier Lavoie-Beauregard and Rene Labrecque called the town to complain about the problem plaguing local streets and damaging cars, but they say nothing was done.

That’s why, on one rainy day this week, when they had to put off work for their own pool business, they had the idea to fill the potholes themselves, with materials they bought themselves.

"There are holes of death," said Labrecque in a recent Facebook video he recorded, showing a nearby street that was particularly bad.

One of the potholes they filled recently took half an hour to complete.

"It was pretty big -- I would say it was maybe two to three feet wide and maybe 12 to 18 inches deep, so it was quite a big pothole," Lavoie-Beauregard said.

"It could be dangerous. It was massive."

The road is so narrow that if another car is oncoming, "there's no way you can avoid the holes at the same time," Labrecque said.

He said he'd originally wished to fill more, but the first hole was so big that it took about half the bags of fill material the duo had bought.

However, the effort did get some other results.

While they were at the guerrilla pothole-filling, the two put up a sign near the hole to promote their business. They also streamed a video of the stunt on Facebook.

They were surprised, they said, after weeks of calling the town officials, to see how speedily authorities responded.

It just took a few hours for a city crew to come and remove their sign. And soon enough, the crew came and fixed the rest of the road.