CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Without fail after a major winter storm, the next evolution will be a rough ride on West Virginia highways.
“Tis the season for potholes,” said Department of Transportation Spokesman Brent Walker. “We know they’re out there. Our folks drive in them as well and yeah, they need to be fixed.”
The constant freeze/thaw cycle over the course of the last three weeks also with the salt and scraping dished out by snowplows takes its toll on the pavement of highways. The agency has crews assigned to pothole duty during the winter months to get them temporarily fixed until the asphalt plants open in the late spring.
“At first we have to band-aid them with the cold patch,” said Walker. “But we’re frustrated as well because we haven’t had many consistent days of dry weather and temperatures above freezing. We get a couple of those and you’ll begin to see our crews start to tackle those.”
The cost of snow removal for this winter was under budget for the DOH until the Presidents Day storm struck. Walker said the last two weeks have put a serious dent in the funds. Typically, if the DOH is able to come through the winter without expending much money, they can dedicate the snow and ice removal money to do pothole repairs. That may or may not be the case now.
“We don’t know yet,” said Walker. “With mild winters we’re able to use those savings for road repairs. We felt pretty good, but with temperatures we haven’t seen in decades and these winter storms, we went from feeling pretty good to a little bit of concern in a matter of a week or ten days.”