The organization charged with maintenance on provincial roads within the Lower Mainland and central and northern parts of Vancouver Island has issued a press release detailing their ongoing efforts to deal with problematic potholes.
Mainroad is under contract with the Ministry of Transportation. The contract lays out what their responsibilities are and how much time they have to respond to those activities, such as pothole patching.
To meet the conditions of their contract, the release indicated, Mainroad crews have been working at a tireless pace to patch potholes as they become aware of them – sometimes patching the same potholes multiple times in a day.
“They have a very robust planning, scheduling, and inspection system in which they monitor their works,” the release stated.
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“The past several weeks of weather has been extremely unusual where it has gone from very cold overnight temperatures of -10 C to daytime highs of 10 C within a few days,” the release read. “Add to this torrential rain, and it is a perfect combination to aid in the breakup of the asphalt roads.”
“I know it’s frustrating for drivers when they come across potholes. The extreme weather we’ve experienced is the root cause because potholes can develop very quickly under these conditions, especially with high volumes of traffic,” said Noel Mankey, vice president, operations. “No B.C. service area is unique in experiencing potholes, and in fact, it is happening across all southern British Columbia. Mainroad’s maintenance crews have been, and will continue to, work non-stop filling blown out sections of road, resulting from the recent winter weather.”
They remind motorists to pay extra attention to the road surface, watching for road hazards when driving under unusual winter conditions.
– NEWS Staff, submitted