Transportation / Potholes

The Department of Transportation's Response to Potholes

The Department of Transportation responds to pothole repairs through complaint tracking, proactive repair and field inspections.

• Crews work in specific zones to service every city street on a proactive basis. This method has reduced pothole complaints throughout the city to only 5-10 per day.
• Citizen reports of potholes are responded to and repaired within 48 hours.
• Emergency situations are responded to immediately.
• Citizens can report a pothole by calling '311' or completing an online service request at: http://baltimore.customerservicerequest.org

What Causes a Pothole to Occur?

When water seeps into cracks of a roadway and temperatures drop below freezing, the water will freeze and expand, causing the asphalt to break apart. This is the main cause of potholes in the streets. Throughout the year, March is typically the busiest month for pothole repairs, while repairs decrease dramatically during the summer and fall.

Pothole Trends

The number of potholes filled each year can range from 140,000 during FY 1996 when we had 62" of snow and used 36,000 tons of salt to 35,000 in FY 1998 when we had 2.5" of snow and used only 1,200 tons of salt. We spent about $1 million on pothole repairs during FY 1996 compared to only $200,000 in FY 1998. Repair costs are budgeted through the Transportation Maintenance Division.

From 02/14/01 through 03/16/01, the City filled 13,502 potholes. The average size of each pothole during this time was 3 square feet.

Number of Crews

• The City is divided into 4 sectors
• 3 crews per sector (12 crews total)
• 3 laborers per crew
• 12 trucks (3 per sector)

Patching Materials Used to Fill Potholes

A 'hot patch' is the preferable type of patching material and consists of a mix of asphalt with various blending adhesives. It is more dense than other patching materials and resists water infiltration.

A 'cold patch' is used when hot asphalt is not available. Hot asphalt plants in this region close each year from November 15th until March 15th. Cold patches have less binding adhesives and are often used as a temporary means. 'Perma Patch' and 'Sylvex' are brand names that refer to the cold patching material.

Methods of Filling Potholes

Throw and Go:

• Drain water, if any, from hole
• Fill with cold patching material
• Tamp down and move on to next pothole
• Takes on average 10 minutes
• Used when hot asphalt plants are closed
• Takes 1 crew (3 laborers)
• Repairs 75-100 potholes per day

Square and Cut:

• Remove debris
• Fill with hot patching material
• Roll, tamp down and move on to next pothole
• Takes on average 25-30 minutes, depending on size of hole
• Used when hot asphalt is available.
• Takes 1 crew (3 laborers)
• Repairs 20-30 potholes per day

Perma-Patch

• Can be used in any weather and applied to wet pavement or water-filled potholes
• Effective in temperatures from -15 degrees F to 100 degrees F.
• Maintains tight closure, preventing water seepage
• Remains pliable in subsurface layer; will not crack or separate from existing paving
• Cure faster with greater volumes of traffic
• No curing time needed

Pothole Trends

Pothole per Month, 2011