Potholes

How potholes form, how we manage them, and how to report them

Potholes

Why Do Potholes Form?

Shoulder seasons can be very tough on City streets! When temperatures are above 0 degrees, snow begins to melt, and the water runoff finds its way under the road surface through cracks and other voids. Often, temperatures drop below 0 degrees overnight, causing the water in these cracks to freeze, expand, and ultimately break apart the asphalt, forming a pothole.

During the freeze-thaw cycles of the shoulder season, potholes may need to be filled multiple times, often within a 24-hour period. As vehicles pass over a pothole that’s been repaired with a temporary fix, the pothole may end up reopening quite quickly, depending on traffic levels—so while you may think a troublesome pothole is never tended to, you might be surprised how often we’ve been there to fix it!
In Terrace, we can experience freeze/thaw weather patterns for months at a time. Over the past three years (January 2020–February 25, 2022), our crews have:
- Spent $621,029 filling potholes,
- of which $248,194 (or about 40%) was spent on pothole mix,
- and took 5,846 labour hours to complete.
In 2022, from January 1 to February 25, crews have used about 50 tonnes of pothole mix. The infographic below shows the breakdown—you’ll notice that 2021 was an especially bad year for potholes.

Click to view a full-size image!