Edmonton seeing more new potholes this year with weather fluctuations: city

Damage to Edmontonian Eric Upham's rim after driving over a pothole. (Submitted)

Edmontonians might notice potholes forming throughout the city with fluctuating winter temperatures.

Eric Upham says he was driving through some snow cover on the way to work one morning when he didn’t realize he hit a pothole.

“When I went through it it sounded like a bomb went off in my car. It was pretty violent,” Upham told CTV News Edmonton.

He drove a couple hundred metres when he noticed his tire was going flat and pulled over to check the damage. He says it bent his front and back rim and flattened his tire.

Upham says he plans to bring his car to a mechanic for an inspection to prevent any further damage while driving. His mistake was running low profile rubber tires instead of big standard winter tires.

“Some lessons are best learned the hard way.”

Central Tire owner Wade Fleming says rims on low profile tires can bend, break and even explode as they don’t have the same cushion as big snow tires. He says they make all the difference.

“They have to keep in mind there’s no such thing as good all season (tires) anymore,” Fleming said.

He says when temperatures warm up, people typically see it as an opportunity to speed up on the roads.

“Therefore we’re hitting that pothole at a bigger rate so we do more damage to the rims front ends and the list goes on.”

More potholes this winter

Potholes are formed when water gets on a roadway. When it freezes and thaws, it creates small voids beneath the surface of the road which turn into potholes.

The city is seeing more new potholes this winter compared to last year, said Matthew Mohr, general supervisor of infrastructure and maintenance with the City of Edmonton. The average lifespan for a pothole is two to three years.

The city is sitting at 500 notifications and 5,600 potholes. In the previous year, it was at 30 notifications and around 1,700 potholes filled.

“This year it’s been a lot more extremes, so the cold, to the warm and also with precipitation, the amount of snow doesn’t help,” Mohr said.

Mohr says the city has year-round crews with three pothole crews per district.

With files from CTV Edmonton’s David Ewasuk