The inevitable agony of potholes is caused by the constant change in temperature during winter months when water freezes and thaws.
“In northeast Ohio we don’t have consistent temperatures,” Brent Kovacs, Public Information Officer from Ohio Department of Transportation said. “We have the warm weather to thaw the water, water seeps into the cracks and freezes, expands breaking the driving surface.”
With semi-trucks and the motoring public running over these holes, they continually get worse. Kovacs said, in the winter season ODOT is either plowing or repairing potholes. This is a revolving cycle all year, repair in the fall and winter and follow up in the summer months to ensure repair will last.
Brent Kovacs – Ohio Department Of Transportation Information Officer
According to Kovacs, potholes and cracks are two separate things. Cracks are typically small about less than an inch and not round. Potholes are large and more round, normally a foot or more.
“We try to preserve our roadways by crack sealing,” Kovacs said. “Keeping those cracks sealed when they are small, preventing water from going in, will prolong the life of our roadways.”
These are the tar lines people see running through the roads. Flexible and hot-patch for the summer because it needs to stay warm when applied and ultimately lasts longer.
According to Kovacs, they use something called a hotbox during the winter months to repair roads. This is a huge metal box with a propane heater to keep the asphalt hot so it can be applied to the road in the winter.
This allows the crew to scoop out hot asphalt and patch the holes. Kovacs said some patches are small enough to be packed down by a shovel while some are large and need to be rolled out to some degree.
[pullquote]“The ones (repairs) we do in the winter aren’t as long term as the ones in the summer,” Kovacs said. “The cold patch material has a tendency to break apart once water gets into it because it wasn’t put in hot and the pothole could have already been wet.”[/pullquote]
ODOT then follows up in the summer months and replaces the cold patch with hot patch which is more permanent.
“At ODOT we are responsible for state routes, US routes and interstates,” Kovacs said. “Every year we have pavement condition ratings, these come from Columbus, and tell us a grade of how the roadway is standing up and if it needs replaced.”
On average they resurface a road every 8-10 years, depending on the road. There are no set criteria for road resurfacing, it is handled individually. They take many steps to save the road before it is too late and needs to be resurfaced.
According to Kovacs, in the summer months they have a slot paving operation or paving train.
“This is where ODOT personnel mill about 3 to 4-foot-wide section and make a medium level repair to the driving surface,” Kovacs said.
Every year they have an east and west side of the district paving contract, this is a spot paving contact. They can pave the whole width of the road or only certain troubling sections. This is another step they take before road resurfacing.
If the road is in bad condition between these regularly scheduled maintenance checkups they can set up an emergency contract to get the road fixed.
[pullquote]“Resurfacings usually go 1 to 4 inches down from the driving surface and we use a milling machine,” Kovacs said. “This is usually contracted out to a contactor. They then replace the driving surface with new asphalt.[/pullquote]
Roads are made of three layers of asphalt stacked on top of a granular, rock base. The base is the thickest with the most rock, to help the water drain when it gets down there. Each layer of asphalt is specially designed to extend the life of the road. The layers get smoother as you come up to the surface, ensuring a nice ride. The surface is about three inches deep and is where your tire rides. This is the smoothest, made with smaller rock and recycled asphalt. The rubber on the surface ensures traction and a smooth and quiet ride.
Kovacs said snow plows have little guides on the left and right side to raise the plow off the road. Sometimes there are parts of the road sticking up causing more damage than what Mother Nature has already caused.
REPORTING AN INCIDENT
On the ODOT website there is a page for reporting roadway defect or damage incident. On this page there is a form that asks you the county, route type, route number, etc. to ensure they can repair the correct pothole. On this website they have a link to the Ohio Court of Claims, if you want to file a complaint and try to have ODOT pay for the damage to your car. ODOT also has phone numbers people can call regarding potholes in their individual counties.
