Pothole repairs underway in Windsor

By Angelica Haggert

If you’ve driven on a Windsor road since the snow melted, you know how bumpy the ride is.

With the snow melt, followed by colder temperatures at night, the cracks and potholes in Windsor streets have grown worse.

As the snow melts, water gets into existing cracks on the roads. Then, the water refreezes, which causes the roadway to expand.

“We have a number of crews out day and night filling potholes,” said Dwayne Dawson, the director of operations for the City of Windsor. A crew drives the streets year-round to note the GPS coordinates of places that need repair.

“They record the GPS, so it can be put on a map to be given to our pothole patching crews so they can go out and fill them,” said Dawson.

The first priority is the main streets.

“We focus on getting the main roads patched, because of the higher traffic and speed on them,” said Roberta Harrison, the coordinator of maintenance operations for the City.

The pothole scouting program runs full year, but this time of the year is the busiest.

“Once it stops snowing, we’re filling potholes,” said Dawson.

“We are filling more potholes (this year) because the roads that were deteriorating last year are deteriorating more this year.”

A single pothole only takes a few minutes to repair, but the patch is temporary until road construction begins in the warmer weather. Almost $1 million is allocated each year to fill potholes in Windsor.

Since January 1, 657 potholes have been reported to 311. Last year, fewer than 300 were reported during the same time period.