They’re big and they’re bad. Montreal’s potholes are once again showing their ugly faces as the city slowly transitions from winter to spring.
“It’s a running joke,” says Dorval resident Marissa Leon-John. “My family in Ontario, they’re always laughing at us because we all have the same problems every year.”
Leon-John has seen her fair share of bad road conditions. She’s a private chef who drives across the city every day.
“Whether it’s the West Island or Westmount the potholes are everywhere. It’s terrible,” she says.
On Thursday while driving through the Dorval circle, she had what she calls her rite of passage.
“I heard the pop — you know, that ‘badoonk’ sound that we’re all so familiar with here in Montreal,” she says.
“I thought it was just a regular pothole…keep going, but it didn’t take very long before the tire pressure indicator came on in my car and said, ‘you need to stop'”.
She’s definitely not alone. Garages across the city are hearing the same story.
“We have seen a lot of pothole damage,” says Rick Pavlopolous, service manager at Gordons Tires in NDG.
“Rims, tires, a little bit more than usual this year. Every year seems to be getting worse,” he adds.
The city admits this year is going to be bad.
“Last month was very difficult with 10 cycles with freezing, unfreezing,” says city spokesperson Philippe Sabourin. “We have three times the rain that we used to have normally and that explains why we have so many potholes in town.”
Work to repair the potholes is in full swing, but Sabourin admits the work is not a permanent solution.
“We’re filling the potholes, it’s an emergency, it’s a band aid temporary solution,” he says. “But we will come back again for a permanent solution by the spring or the summer.”
The city uses 12 special trucks called ‘Pythons” that can fill up to 300 potholes a day. Montreal is also investing $5 billion over 10 years to fix the roads.
For now, Montrealers are asked to drive with caution and to use the Montreal Service aux Citoyen app to report potholes.