Worst pothole season could be ahead for City of Lincoln

Big potholes are causing big problems in Lincoln.

Record levels of snowfall this winter have wreaked havoc on streets across the city.

With warmer weather in sight city officials are preparing for the worst pothole season yet.

“We’re already actively preparing for an elevated response to potholes, we’re already seeing them pop around town and as we inch our way toward warmer weather we’re going to see even more,” Miki Esposito, the Director of Public Works, said.

Last year public works filled nearly 40,000 potholes and this year they expect to fill even more.

Esposito said the freeze-thaw cycle we’ve seen and record levels of snow have created the perfect storm for hundreds of new potholes to form.

“Water fills cracks, the freeze thaw expands the concrete or asphalt and it just sort of pops new asphalt and concrete out of a hole.”

Currently the City is filling potholes with cold patch which is more time and labor extensive and is only a temporary fix.

A better fix is spray patchers but temperatures have to be above freezing to use them.

Esposito said filling the potholes is only a temporary solution and not a very good one.

“The more rehab we can do it’s sort of the cure to the pothole problem and we just can’t get ahead of them.”

The quarter-cent sales tax has been proposed to redo roads, which the City said ultimately will fix the pothole problem.