Usually, when snow and cold pound Maple Ridge roads, the following melt reveals plenty of pot holes.
But after a week of winter earlier this month that began the week of Jan. 12, the resulting holes carved by snow and ice into the road surface have been managable, said city roads superintendent Walter Oleschak.
“It’s definitely not our worst year,” he said Friday. Oleschak said that as soon as temperatures warmed up last week, crews went on pothole patrol.
Read more: Council hears update on snow
Once they see a pothole, crews will fill the hole with cold-patch filler. “It’s designed to be used in water,” said Oleschak. The material allows crews to fill and pack a pothole, even if it’s filled with water. That will generally last until warmer weather when crews will cut out the pothole and properly repair the road.
He said that about 15 repairs were done this week, adding they’ve had only a few calls.
Other calls have come in about Lougheed Highway, just east of the Haney Bypass, but that’s not maintained by the city.
Read more: Pitt Meadows cleared roads Sunday night
Mainroad Lower Mainland Contracting maintains the Lougheed Highway and said on Friday that work is going on around the clock to fix potholes on the highways it maintains in Metro Vancouver.
It said that potholes that are directly in the main travel path on a highway are repaired first, while larger potholes are repaired before small ones.
It added that cold and wet weather and high traffic volumes can require a pothole to be filled up to four times a day.
Oleschak said that the city used 1,800 tonnes of road salt in the week starting Jan. 12. But thanks to a new salt shed in public works, the city still had plenty left over and is restocking the shed to its full capacity of 3,200 tonnes. That will be good to have for when the next bit of snow is expected on Feb. 4 or 5, when up to 1o centimetres of snow could fall.
So far, the city has spent about $75,000 in overtime for crews to keep icy and snowy streets passable.
pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter