A bad year for potholes, say Greater Sudbury drivers, mechanics

A drive not far from her home in Sudbury ended up costing Louisa Szymanski more than $150 after hitting a pothole.

"I was driving on Regent (Street) and I just had crossed the stop sign at Douglas (Street), so I was only going like 30 because I was just coming from a stop," Szymanski said.

"And then all of a sudden I hit this pothole. I didn't even see it. It was raining."

She said the impact damaged the rim on one of her tires and she paid out of pocket to get it repaired.

Szymanski moved to Sudbury from Barrie five years ago, and said she finds the road conditions are worse in the northern Ontario city.

"Some of the larger roads have, like, these gigantic potholes.," she said. "And I feel like they're not fixing them fast enough."

Pat Robichaud, the owner and operator of Lorne Auto Repair in Sudbury, said 2022 has been one of the worst years he has seen for pothole-related damage to vehicles.

"Last week alone, we had six separate cars with broken rims and broken tires due to potholes," Robichaud said. 

"Like right down to one vehicle that was brand new. It only had 7,000 kilometres on it."

Robichaud said that depending on the damage, repairs at his shop have ranged from $160 to $800 for a Dodge Journey that needed new rims.

"I definitely change the way I drive," he said.

"I drive significantly slower. I'm dodging them (potholes) left, right and centre. I mean, my Jeep's only four weeks old. I really don't want to break it, so I'm doing the same thing just like everybody else."

Perfect conditions for potholes

Brittany Hallam, the City of Greater Sudbury's director of linear infrastructure services, said the weather this winter and spring have created perfect conditions for potholes to form.

"In general, the condition of the road is going to be impacted by a freeze-thaw cycle," Hallam said.

"Anytime water can get into the cracks of that road in any way, any sort of crevice, you're going to see some of that expanding and contraction of the water. Eventually, over time it will degrade the strength of that asphalt."

Hallam said older roads are more prone to potholes because they have cracks where water can enter and expand when it freezes. 

She said during the colder winter months city crews primarily use a cold mix asphalt for pothole repairs. As the weather warms, the city is able to use a warm mix asphalt that comes from Toronto, and that lasts longer than the cold mix.

A new tool

This year, the city also has a new tool in its arsenal, in the form of the $550,000 Python 5000 all-in-one pothole patching machine.

With an operator at the controls, Hallam said the Python 5000 replaces a crew of four workers.

"From what we've seen so far, it works really well," she said.

"We've had positive results. It is able to actually provide stronger compaction than a typical hand crew could. So what we're seeing from that is that the pothole repairs are actually longer lasting, even with this freeze-thaw."

But due to its hydraulics, Hallam said the machine can't operate in temperatures colder than about -10 C. 

Greater Sudbury residents can report potholes to the city by calling 311, or through the city's online portal.

According to Ontario's Municipal Act, the city has between four and 30 days to repair a pothole after it has been reported, depending on the size of the pothole and class of the road.

A large pothole on a main arterial road, for example, would need to be repaired within four days.