Mainroad is under contract with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to carry out maintenance on provincial roads within the Lower Mainland and central and northern parts of Vancouver Island. The contract lays out what our responsibilities are and how much time we must respond to those activities, such as pothole patching.
To meet the conditions of our contract, Mainroad crews have been working at a tireless pace to patch potholes as we become aware of them – sometimes patching the same potholes multiple times in a day. We have a very robust planning, scheduling, and inspection system in which we monitor our works. The past several weeks of weather has been extremely unusual where we’ve gone from very cold overnight temperatures of minus 10 degrees to daytime highs of plus 10 degrees within a few days. Add to this torrential rain and it is a perfect combination to aid in the breakup of the asphalt roads.
“I know it’s frustrating for drivers when they come across potholes. The extreme weather we’ve experienced is the root cause because potholes can develop very quickly under these conditions, especially with high volumes of traffic. No B.C. Service Area is unique in experiencing potholes, and in fact, it is happening across all southern B.C. Mainroad’s maintenance crews have been and will continue to work non-stop filling blown out sections of road, resulting from the recent winter weather,” Noel Mankey, VP, Operations.
Please share these resources on how potholes form & how road maintenance crews fix them:
Mainroad has produced a brief public education video on pothole patching:
TranBC | The problem of perennial pothole patching on B.C. highways
Motorists need to pay extra attention to the road surface, watching for road hazards when driving under these unusual winter conditions and it is always a good reminder to check www.drivebc.ca for updates.