HALIFAX – It has been a long and expensive winter in Halifax for the city and residents alike.
The repeated freeze-and-thaw cycle has created more potholes than usual — since January, the city has spent about $500,000 on pothole repairs.
“We’ve had upwards of 6,000 potholes we’ve filled since the first of January — an abnormally large amount so early,” said Don Pellerine, the city superintendent responsible for streets and sidewalks.
“Normally, pothole season runs through the end of February into March, but this year it started just before Christmas and we’ve been chasing some bad potholes for a long period of time.”
The availability of quality asphalt has been hampering repair efforts.
Local hot asphalt plants aren’t expected to open until April 22 at the earliest, so in the meantime, Halifax is creating its own supply.
“We do produce our own hot asphalt with our own kind of homemade style asphalt recycle machines. It doesn’t give us the quality or quantity we require, but it’s better than cold mix,” Pellerine said.
In the meantime, mechanic shops are reporting a spike in customers looking for pothole-related damage repairs.
She estimated most repairs, ranging from new tires to wheel alignment, can cost between $300 and $1,000.
Drivers who think their cars were damaged by a pothole can file a claim with the city. However, the municipality can only be found liable if negligence can be proven. In other words, it must be proven the city knew about a pothole but failed to inspect or fix it within their standard service period.
During the 2013-14 fiscal year, which ended on March 31, Halifax received 309 pothole claims. Since then, 138 of those claims have been closed and six have been paid. In the previous fiscal year, there were only 109 pothole claims.
The municipality estimates it surpassed its $20-million snow clearing budget by $3 million dollars.
“The salt usage was considerably higher — probably 25 to 30 per cent higher than normal — due to the type of events that we had,” said Gordon Hayward, the superintendent of HRM Winter Works.
He also said the large number of winter storms led to overspending on equipment rental and staff overtime.
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