Toronto has some 'outrageously big' potholes this winter and will soon launch a blitz to fill them: Chow
CBC
Toronto's harsh winter has led to some "outrageously big" potholes, its mayor says, and city crews will soon fan out to fill them as part of a repair blitz.
Crews have already begun shifting their efforts to fixing potholes, but can't fill them if they are moving snow, Mayor Olivia Chow said Monday. That said, a concerted effort to fill potholes is coming, she promised.
"We just had four weeks of deep freeze and now it's warm again ... We will have a blitz soon. We just need for the weather to have some consistency," Chow said. "We're ready to fix it."
Chow said she has seen some "gigantic" potholes that "eat your tire" and "wreck your alignments," thanks to year's "brutal" winter.
In a statement Monday, the city said it is seeing a higher number of requests for pothole repairs this year than in previous years.
City crews have begun "proactively" to identify, document and repair pothole and road damage during routine patrols and repair operations, the city said.
Pothole repair blitzes are typically held in the spring when the weather thaws, which is also when potholes become more common, the city added.
Toronto's 2026 pothole budget is about $6.2 million, compared to $5.5 million last year, according to the city.
The annual pothole repair budget is an based on the expected number of potholes to be filled. Each year is determined by the number filled the previous year, the city said
As for how potholes form, the city said it's all due to freeze and thaw cycles.
"After the moisture freezes and expands, sections of the pavement are forced upwards and the weight of vehicles travelling over this section of the road breaks the pavement, creating a pothole," the city said.
Madeh Piryonesi, a civil engineering assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, said freeze and thaw cycles can be made worse by the precipitation amounts and drainage quality. If there is a lot of snow, he said, the water that accumulates from melting snow will affect the pavement, particularly if drainage is poor.
"When snow melts, it is going to turn into water, and when it freezes, it is going to expand and contract again. And this expansion is going to break off the structure of the pavement," Piryonesi said.
This year, Toronto received a lot of snow, and that means the city will see the impact when the snow melts, he said.
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