Pothole patrol fills an endless need

7:53 PM, Apr 4, 2013   |    comments
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SCARBOROUGH, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Tucked somewhere in between winter and spring on the calendar in Maine is mudseason - a time when the weather fluctuates between warm and cold, wreaking havoc on the state's roads and driveways.

Road crews try to keep pace, filling in potholes a shovelful at a time, but until the weather gets warm and stays warm, there is little they can do but repair and often times repeat.

"All it takes is a little piece of pavement to break loose, cars going over it, the traffic continually beating the hot top, and you start a hole," explained Maine Department of Transportation Region One Superintendent, Tim Cusick.  "The more rain and water that we get in it, and the cars hitting it and the trucks, it makes a bigger hole."

He says workers travel the roads daily looking for problem potholes and filling them with cold patch - a type of tar and pavement mixture designed to provide at least a temporary fix - and tamping it down in to place until they can fix it for good once the asphalt plants open in the summer.

"When we put hot top in a hole, compact it down, it bonds right with the pavement," explained Cusick. 

The Maine DOT encourages motorists who encounter large potholes to contact their regional DOT office and report the potholes so crews can fix it before it damages vehicles or causes an accident.


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