It’s officially pothole-filling season in Toronto.
The city spent Saturday repairing as many as they could in a 12-hour blitz.
Expressways, major roads and neighbourhood streets were major targets.
About 60 crews raced to repair as many potholes as possible.
“We hope to get 4,000 to 5,000 potholes filled today,” said Mark Mills, City of Toronto road operations manager.
The first day of February marked the city’s first pothole blitz of the year.
Last month, more than 15,500 potholes needed to be repaired.
“This winter we’ve seen a lot of freeze-thaw events, that is the perfect recipe for potholes. So we thought this day because of the fair weather that we would get out and get on top of the potholes,” said Mills.
It’s a welcome sight for Andrew Clemens who’s morning run was riddled with potholes.
“Probably 30 or 40 I’d say. There’s an awful lot. As the winter cracks things up it’s pretty known, especially down this strip here (Leslie Street and Unwin Avenue),” said Clemens.
CAA’s Raymond Chan understands it’s a large task for municipalities across the province.
“The amount of heavy truck traffic that travels across the city and even daily commuters as well, as they go over the cracks in the road, you start to see potholes form, so it is a big, big challenge to keep up but I’m glad to see municipalities like Toronto are starting to invest,” said Chan.
The city held six of pothole blitz’s last year, repairing about 50,000.
“We’re using hot mix asphalt which is a better fix than the cold mix asphalt,” said Mills.
The city budgets between $4 and $5 million a year to fix potholes.
Residents can report any that remain unfixed to 3-1-1.