Pothole repair season is well underway with City of Barrie crews actively patching potholes since Feb. 1.
The city has received 209 service requests to date from the public regarding potholes - 92 in Jan., 80 in Feb., and just 37 in March.
Crews have performed 2,723 repairs, which translates into 13 times more than the service requests received.
"The service requests related to potholes suggested January and February of 2017 were the most challenging months between 2012 to 2017," said Ken Lin, Barrie's Roads Operation Project Coordinator.
"The service requests received in March are among one of lowest months in 6 years."
Lin credits the city's proactive approach and efficient methods of tackling the pothole problem by starting repairs in Feb. when weather permitted.
Winter 2017 is a record year for bumps in the roads.
"In terms of the pothole numbers we repaired this year, it's highly likely that the numbers are significantly higher than previous years because the significant more amount of snow we got this winter," Lin explained.
"The snowfall in total exceeds the past six or seven year average too."
Potholes are born out of frequent freeze and thaw cycles in winter when water gets into the base layer of the road.
Throw in hundreds of cars repeatedly driving over those areas and it's a recipe for a whole lot of holes.
"The freeze and thaw happens and they basically just pop," explains Lin.
Lin has worked in a variety of roles at the city since he started about four years ago.
He says his current department brings innovation technology to the operational side.
"When I first came to roads operations, we recorded pothole repairs using paper. It was just a list of where the crews went. We're talking about Bayfield St. We're talking about Collier St. That's like two kilometres long of road. We really didn't know where the potholes were," he said.
"Then the insurance claims came in, claims of damages due to potholes. At that time we really couldn't defend whether we actually fixed those potholes or not and how big the potholes were."
Now technology allows specific geographic positioning information on those potholes and crews also document the size and depth.
And just in time for spring lawn sprucing, the city is hoping to release a sod damage app by the end of April.
"We are testing the sod damage repair app internally along with several other apps including catch basin inspection and repair, water course inspection and repair apps," said Lin.
"We've so far received 52 service requests for sod repair. For the sod app, we identify it as a priority to release asap."
