The current mild winter has taken it easy on roads, even as it has made it easier for highway crews to keep up with the modest damage the recent months have inflicted.
"This year I don't think we had the major freezing and thawing we had in previous years," said city highway Superintendent Alan Hykes.
"We have not had the severe frost," said Lamarr Dively, highway foreman for Logan Township.
Mirror photo by Gary M. Baranec
Motorists traveling along 13th Street near 20th Avenue encounter a series of potholes. A lack of snow this winter has enabled workers to fill potholes because there hasn’t been much plowing to do.
Still, there are potholes, and workers have been out.
They've had more time to fill those potholes, because there
hasn't been much plowing to do.
It's been "absolutely" easier to keep up, Dively said.
"Any day it's dry, we're patching, Hykes said.
They use cold patch for now, because area asphalt plants aren't producing hot asphalt until the end of this month or the beginning of next month, according to Hykes, Dively and PennDOT spokeswoman Pam Kane.
All three departments make use of notifications from residents about the location of potholes.
City clerical workers note those locations, and crews head to hotspots when there's a critical number of holes to fix.
"We don't necessarily go helter-skelter through the city," Hykes said.
Logan workers take care of each hole as it's noted.
Depending on the weather, "if they call it in, we try to get right on it," Dively said. "If not that day, then the next."
PennDOT workers check out all holes they hear about, evaluate the problem and fix immediately if warranted, Kane said.
Cold patch repairs don't hold up as well those patched with hot asphalt, Dively said.
With cold patch, workers simply broom out depressing and apply the material, he said.
With hot asphalt, they square up the hole with a saw, apply the patch and seal the edges, to prevent water infiltration.
When cold patching, city workers try to square up the holes and dig out loose material, but they use a hand tamper, Hykes said.
They dig deeper and use a roller for compaction for hot patching.
"It's more permanent," Hykes said.
The freeze-thaw cycle - freezing and night, thawing during day - is the "absolute worst" for roads, Hykes said.
When water freezes, it expands, causing movement and creating cracks.
Those cracks can easily become holes, sometimes if there's a height differential and a plow catches the lip and spalls out the asphalt, Hykes said.
"You break chunks off that way," he said.
The main culprit for winter road problems is actually poor drainage of the sub-base, according to Dively.
Water in the sub-base freezes and thaws, heaving the road surface.
But it doesn't necessarily - or even usually - come from cracks or holes in the surface of the road, he said.
Rather, it comes from underneath or the sides.
Keeping it clear of water requires building the road correctly in the first place, Dively said.
That means placing perforated pipe at strategic points and creating roadside ditches or inlets and storm drains where necessary.
His crews have the most trouble now with roads built improperly.
Fifty years ago, shoddy road construction was common, he said.
"A little stone down, and pave on top," he said. "Get the residents out of the mud."
It was a matter of "expedience," he said.
His crews deal with the problems those shoddily constructed roads cause by undercutting at strategic points and creating drainage channels to get rid of the water underneath, he said.
PennDOT will "engage in a full-blown pothole fix" when the hot mix plants open, Kane said.