I will definitely avoid the sinkhole on Idylwyld (SP Mar. 13/12) but how do we avoid the multitude of other roads in the city that need repair. Avoiding collected water is difficult when every street in my area has some.
Sunday I nearly destroyed my undercarriage driving through water on a road leading to Taylor Street. I was only doing about 30 klicks when I hit the hole under the water and heard the sickening crunch from my car. Every vehicle I encountered after that joined me in weaving around trying to skirt the potholes.
I'm starting to see this as a spring/summer activity.
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Walking, cycling, and taking the bus are guaranteed not to do any damage to your vehicle.
ReplyDeleteYou do realize that potholes are a fact of life in our climate, right?
ReplyDeleteat > Mar 14, 2012 07:42 PM
ReplyDeleteYou do realize that taxes pay to fill portholes, right ?
As a long-time Saskatoon citizen, why shouldn't I be able to drive my car to an appointment that is too far to walk or cycle to, where there is no nearby bus service without hurting my tire alignment?
ReplyDeleteExcellent blog site, Elaine!!!
"You do realize that taxes pay to fill portholes, right ?"
ReplyDeleteYou do realize that potholes happen a lot faster than there is manpower & material to fix them with, right?
You do realize there is no asphalt available yet, right?
And trying to repair roadways while they are still subject to snowmelt & freeze thaw cycles is a stupid waste of manpower and material, right?
"You do realize that potholes happen a lot faster than there is manpower & material to fix them with, right?"
ReplyDeleteYou do realize that most of them are from the previous year that were never fixed, right ?
Potholes are created when water penetrates the top layer of asphalt through cracks in the road. After the moisture freezes and expands, sections of the pavement are forced up. The weight of vehicles going over this section of road breaks the pavement and the asphalt is forced out. To fix a pothole, hot asphalt is poured and raked into it. Then the asphalt is tamped down and smoothed out. It costs roughly $25 to repair a pothole. The City of Toronto allocates about $6 million per year to fix approximately 275,000 potholes. I don’t know what Saskatoon spends on potholes or how many are fixed per year.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, I overheard 2 men sitting behind me on a plane, talking about Saskatoon asphalt repairs and one man told the other that one of the reasons our potholes are so bad is that some or all of the asphalt used is made using smooth stones, instead of CRUSHED rock, meaning the asphalt would'nt hold together as long. He said it meant more work for the people repairing the potholes. I wonder what the City Maintenance people would say about THAT.
ReplyDelete@Mar 22, 2012 12:25 AM
ReplyDeleteSend the city an email or contact your councilor to see if there is any truth in it.
Edmonton's pothole budget for 2012 is around $5.7 million. The expectation is that is that they will fix 97% of all potholes. Normally they attend to 400,000 to 420,000 potholes a year.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the climate, Edmonton is probably a better comparable for Saskatoon than Toronto is. However if I'm a Toronto taxpayer, I might be asking why Edmonton can fix almost twice as many potholes for the same amount of money.
"I wonder what the City Maintenance people would say about THAT."
ReplyDeleteProbably that the City buys asphalt and has to buy what is available.
Why not make lemonaid? Saskatoon should change its name to "Pothole" Saskatchewan and market itself to tourists as a kind of urban "Badlands." Coincidently, the Big Muddy Badlands was notorious for Outlaws.
ReplyDeleteCalling City Hall to ask if they use or used smooth stones in their asphalt, would I think, be a waste of time. They would not admit to it anyway. A lot of things in this city are a waste of time, because, if any unethical "stuff" is going on, there is not enough motivation or action by taxpayers to research, address, and challenge City Hall. So we just keep sitting in long line-ups (which will get longer) and pay higher taxes as good sheeple. I don't have any training in city planning, but they way this city has been and continues to be designed is a shame.
ReplyDeleteTurns out that all the cars that have been reported stolen in Saskatoon were not stolen after all. They simply disappeared in a pot hole.
ReplyDelete