City of Winnipeg crews temporarily filling early season potholes

As the mild winter slowly starts to turn into spring in Winnipeg, potholes are making a comeback and city crews are already out fixing what they can.

City crews are embracing dry but cold Winnipeg weather to temporarily fix early-season potholes.

“There was very little pothole patching going on last spring around this time but this year, it’s kind of on average,” City of Winnipeg public works communications coordinator Ken Allen said.

Right now, the city has four crews out fixing roads and as the weather warms up, there will be closer to a dozen.

So far this year crews have already fixed thousands of potholes.

“So far in terms of service requests to 311, we’ve had about 450 requests for pothole repairs and since January 1st our crews (have been out) when they’ve needed to be out patching potholes. As of today, we have patched over 5,800 potholes,” Allen said.

Because hot asphalt isn’t available for use until mid-May, crews currently use a special mix to patch holes in roadways. As the weather warms up, they’ll return to make permanent repairs.

City streets are fixed based on a priority system.

“In the springtime when potholes are getting repaired, we are really focusing our efforts on those main routes where cars are traveling a bit faster, there’s more traffic volume to contend with,” Allen said.