It always amazing me how many craters end up in the roads once the ground finally thaws. And since we had a harsh winter, of course we're going to have an equally harsh pothole season!
Now, as much as I'd love to just blame Mother Nature, I can't. A lot of it has to do with the fact that cities/counties don't properly maintain road and them them go well past their lifetime before paying any attention to them. By then, it's too late... but instead of a full repave, they just patch them for a few years, which makes pothole season worse on those roads. Yeah, I know it goes back to lack of budget, which is continuously getting cut. All the more reason we need to find a better mode of transportation. Why don't we have hovercrafts yet?
Time for my voiced opinion (which seems to be happening more on this blog lately)... northern states should not use concrete!! Those, by far, are the WORST roads during pothole season, which is primarily due to the lack of maintenance. If your not going to seal the joints/crack before every winter, don't even consider concrete roads! The water/snow gets into the joins, expands and contracts all season, then leaves an unavoidable TRENCH across the entire lane of the road! This happens on the asphalt covered concrete roads, too... those joints didn't magically heal - they still mirror up to the surface and water/snow still gets in them!
This doesn't make asphalt perfect, either... especially since so many are over concrete. But even more so, they often fail because of bad subgrade/subsurface preparation. There's a reason the specifications tell the contractors to compact to a certain density... and even the best contractor can still miss areas... which then fail, the asphalt starts to crack and, once again, the water gets in an makes it worse. But at least you can dodge the craters that are in asphalt, even if they are deep. Well, most of them, anyway.
This is why I'm glad I'm in a truck. I'm up high and see them coming, PLUS, my tires/wheels can handle it a bit better if I do hit one. I feel for those is cars with lower profile tires than my Xterra - especially sports cars with the super low profile tire. Sucks to be you this time of year!
So "Happy Pothole Season" to all my friends in the northern states... and good luck this year!
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