Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall had his hard hat and high-vis safety vest on filling potholes Thursday morning, as work crews continue to make their way around the city with shovels and a truck full of cold-mix asphalt.
City crews have already filled more than 3,600 potholes, a number which is expected to increase by the hundreds each day, Nuttall said, before being handed a shovel to fill a large pothole on Hailey Hollow in Barrie's northwest end.
“This is a big issue, especially in the older parts of Barrie. There’s been quite a lot of funding put into trying to renew our infrastructure in the city. This year, we contributed two per cent to the DIRF — the designated infrastructure renewal fund,” he said.
The budget for filling potholes is about $500,000 each year, which is not funded from the DIRF.
Nuttall says the goal is to get to every single pothole on every single street, but is urging residents to reach out to the city if they are aware of a pothole that hasn’t been filled.
“This is a priority for the City of Barrie. If there is one that is missed, which there is going to be inevitably, we will do everything we can to get there and get it filled," the mayor said.
With potholes being an ongoing issue every year, Nuttall acknowledged city officials do investigate the state of the city’s infrastructure needs every two years.
“They do a drive around, see what the quality of the road is at that point, how much it’s deteriorated and what the lifespan of that road is left," he said. "We need to do more of that type of auditing to be able to be able to do the full fixes that need to be done in advance, which will provide for a longer lifespan for the roads.
"That’s a key piece. The more data we have and the more we can prioritize our investments in the places it’s needed will certainly help prevent potholes in the future,” Nuttall added.
The city maintains approximately 1,370 lane kilometres of road.
The city says crews regularly patrol streets to identify potholes and other road deficiencies, but potholes can develop daily when temperatures begin to hover around zero degrees.
The city typically sees a higher volume of calls for repair in the older areas, including Hailey Hollow, a street that's due for resurfacing this year, said Dave Friary, the city's director of operations. As for how crews know where to be, Friary explained they have an app for that.
“Crews go out and they have an app on their phone, (which) tells them where the potholes are. All these calls come in … and they get sent to our (staff) and then sent to crews out on the road," he said. "They look at their phone and they’d see Hailey Hollow; potholes in front of house 23 … Then they fill it and hit complete on their phone and it’s done.”
The city also collects the size and depths of each pothole, Friary added. That data is then provided to staff in corporate asset management, who compile and prioritize which streets need to be done.
“It’s not just willy-nilly picking streets," he said. "There are other things we have to consider as well. If, for example, a street is in need of sewer repairs or water-main repairs, we are not going to go in and pave it if the sewers are due for replacement in three years.
"It’s about doing the right work at the right time. We prioritize everything.”
Friary said the city will go through about $130,000 worth of cold mix at this time of year. Cold-mix asphalt is made of a quarter-inch chip stone and oil, which keeps the asphalt soft and helps to repel water.
He estimates the city will typically have several crews out working.
“When there are no winter-control activities going on, we may have up to six crews out. All throughout the year, we will have at least two crews out doing potholes," he said. "This time of year, depending on the weather, will bring crews in on weekends.”
Potholes can be reported by the following means:
* Service Barrie online (servicebarrie.ca)
* Phone: 705-726-4242
* E-mail: [email protected]
* Mobile app
* Social media
Visit barrie.ca/Potholes for more information.
