City pothole numbers down but storm keeps crews hopping

The good news is Winnipeg has had fewer potholes to fill this year. The bad news is the recent stormy weather may create a whole new wave on city streets.

Crews have filled approximately 86,760 potholes from Jan. 1 to June 10 of this year. There were 101,600 potholes filled in the same period last year and 153,960 in 2024.

That doesn’t mean city crews haven’t been as busy: breaks in roads created by Tuesday night’s torrential downpour — and the rain since — continue to pose problems. Some roads haven’t had the chance to dry to be repaired, causing delays.

“That rain was very bad, and it opened up a lot (of potholes) for sure, and deep ones … we’ve had a surge in calls, and it’s very difficult,” public works chair Janice Lukes said Monday.

There have been 7,242 calls made to 311 reporting potholes this year, and 501 calls last week alone. There have been 115 pothole-related claims reported to Manitoba Public Insurance from Winnipeg this month so far, and 1,450 this year. There may be claims that have yet to be reported as the Crown Corporation is working through a backlog caused by last week’s severe weather.

Potholes are caused by water getting into the road and separating layers of the pavement, weakening asphalt impacted by traffic. A major storm that leaves water sitting on the road can accelerate that damage.

Crews are currently prioritizing high-priority roads, and even the location of potholes is being triaged, said Lukes. If there is more than one pothole on a street and limited time or resources, crews will fill the ones tires are most likely to pass over before tackling ones in the middle of the road.

New potholes are a possibility after the recent weather, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Manitoba said.

“With the storm that we had last week, we expect there will be more stress on infrastructure and, possibly more damage showing up, so it doesn’t surprise me that we see something like this following a major storm like the one we had,” said Ahmed Shalaby.

A sinkhole opened on Newman Street in Wolseley Saturday, causing a vehicle to slump into the hole and drawing onlookers.

“With the storm that we had last week, we expect there will be more stress on infrastructure and, possibly more damage showing up.”

The owner of the van said Sunday the hole could be related to a sewage pipe in the area that was damaged in the storm.

A woman fell into a sinkhole in Wolseley in late April, and another much larger sinkhole opened up on Washington Avenue in East Kildonan following a water main break earlier that month.

Shalaby said seeing sinkholes in the city isn’t a new phenomenon, especially considering the age of Winnipeg’s road infrastructure.

“Parts of it are 60 or 80 years old, part of the pipes that are under our streets are old, and at some point experience failures that cause sinkholes and other types of damage,” he said.

“How do you manage to renew this infrastructure, and at the same time, find funds for all the other projects? It has always been a challenge, and cities, especially, are limited in terms of the funding they receive.”

Some drivers are doing all they can to warn others about big potholes while they wait for city repairs.

When a set of new tires for the family vehicle was no match for a five-foot long pothole on Portage Avenue last week, River Heights resident Eduardo Pogorelsky returned to the scene to place a tiny warning flag.

His wife had driven over the eight-inch deep pothole near Mount Royal Crescent, ripping off a small chunk of the days-old tire.

“The problem is, it’s very easy to go and put something so people don’t have accidents, and (the city) is not doing that,” Pogorelsky, 68, said Monday.

He said he was inspired to take matters into his own hands after seeing the city move slowly to block off large potholes in the past.

“We are not talking about the money, we are talking about possible worse accidents,” he said.

A CAA Manitoba survey of 649 of its members found an average of $944 was spent to repair their vehicles due to damage from potholes last year, up from $882 the year before.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca