DAVENPORT, Iowa — With the return of the warm weather comes the reemergence of one of spring's most hazardous side effects: potholes.
In Davenport, crews are busying patching up the problematic potholes every day, but say the current 'fixes' are only temporary. The reason behind it comes down to the timing of the weather.
During late winter and early spring, freezes and thaws are common. But all of that expanding and contracting water is bad for the asphalt patches filling up potholes. To help, Davenport Public Works uses different mixtures during different seasons.
In the summer, crews use hot mix: an asphalt-substance that needs to stay warm until poured. However, most asphalt plants shut down for the winter around Thanksgiving. Then the city turns to cold mix: a version of hot mix diluted with diesel.
"When you get rain events, when you get snow events and plowing events, those potholes that have been filled with the cold mix generally tend to pop out quite a bit sooner than we see when we're able to use the hot mix," said Nicole Gleason, director of the city's public works department. "That's usually why you see more potholes in the winter, because once they occur they're a lot harder to fill properly."
However, it doesn't mean Davenport doesn't try to make the cold mix patches last.
"We go out of our way to do it right the first time, but the winter... it's weather related," said Jeremy Schulz. He's Davenport's street maintenance supervisor and typically has three teams of two out on pothole patrol every day. "In the spring, when we go full force with hot mix, these holes all get sealed up right and most of them will be permanent."
And that timing could be just around the corner. Schulz says the city is only waiting on an equipment part before firing up its own asphalt plant. And if the part doesn't arrive within the next few weeks, he says other facilities will be opening up near April.
"We do the best we can to make them drivable until the weather gets nice and we can fix them properly," Schulz said. "But we're on top of it every day."
According to Davenport Public Works, the city used 2,200 tons of hot mix to fill more than 70,000 potholes in 2021. An additional 13,000 craters were treated with 150 tons of cold mix during that same time frame.
And now, the city wants your help to identify some of the most problematic potholes. If you spot a fracture you want filled, you can report it here, on Davenport's SeeClickFix portal. Those requests are then immediately filed into public works' work order system, giving crews the exact location of the hole.