Balmy weather brings brutal roads, battered vehicles By: Chris Kitching Posted: 6:09 PM CDT Monday, Mar. 11, 2024

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This article was published 11/03/2024 (939 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After hitting a large, hidden pothole on a scarred St. Boniface street Sunday night, Giuseppe Marino pulled into a parking lot and discovered he wasn’t the only victim.

Five other drivers were already parked with flat tires, while two more damaged vehicles had been left behind by their owners, he said.

“We avoided another (pothole) and came back into the lane, and hit that one,” said Marino, who was driving with his wife, Kristen. “The whole lane was just terrible.

“Potholes that dangerous, where they’re wiping out someone’s car, they should be looked at right away and taken seriously.”

Winnipeg’s 2024 pothole season got off to an early start thanks to the freeze-thaw cycle of an unusually mild winter. Drivers are feeling it in more ways than one.

The number of pothole-related damage claims submitted to Manitoba Public Insurance in February was 372 per cent higher than the same period in 2023.

The public auto insurer received 406 claims last month, up from 86 in February 2023 and 55 in 2022, MPI spokeswoman Kristy Rydz said.

In Marino’s case, the pothole in question was in Archibald Street’s northbound curb lane, near Mission Street. It was at the entrance to a construction zone, where a barricade forces left-lane traffic to merge into the curb lane.

Marino said he couldn’t see the pothole, because it was submerged in water from a weekend thaw. It was also dark outside.

One of the other vehicles had two blown tires.

Marino and the other drivers exchanged personal details to support each other’s claims to MPI. He paid for a tow home and had another expense Monday, when he had summer tires put back on his car.

While waiting in the parking lot Sunday night, his wife put up a Facebook post to warn drivers about the tire-busting pothole.

Some of those who replied said they reported the pothole to the city’s 311 service Thursday and Saturday.

“It’s a repair that should have been done days ago,” said Marino, who gave a blunt assessment of the city’s roads.

“Terrible; there’s got to be infrastructure money somewhere to fix these roads better than they do.”

A driver who hit the pothole Friday was fortunate to avoid damage to her vehicle.

“I noticed it at the last second, so I still had a hard hit,” said Elissa, who asked that her last name be withheld. “I drive that route almost every day, and it’s gotten progressively worse.”

She said the pothole had been filled by the time she returned to Archibald Saturday.

“I was glad to see that it was fixed, but I knew it wasn’t going to last,” said Elissa, who previously worked in road construction. “It wasn’t truly repaired. It’s just like a Band-Aid.”

Cold packs, or mixes, that are used to temporarily patch holes in cold, wet weather at this time of year tend to crumble, she said.

Bordered by residential and industrial areas, Archibald is a busy route that is used by a lot of large, heavy vehicles, Elissa noted.

Because cold packs don’t last, city crews may have to fill the same pothole multiple times due to moisture or wear and tear, said public works chair Coun. Janice Lukes.

Weather permitting, the city usually begins using hot asphalt for longer-lasting repairs in May.

Lukes (Waverley West) encouraged people to report potholes to 311 to get them filled. She said budget constraints prohibit constant pothole maintenance.

“To do constant maintenance, we would have to forfeit other things or raise taxes,” the deputy mayor said.

In the 2024 draft budget, the city plans to spend $138 million on road repairs, down from $156 million in 2023. The budget holds the annual property tax increase at 3.5 per cent.

As of Sunday, MPI had received 98 pothole-related claims so far this month. The Crown corporation received 204 claims in March 2023 and 622 in March 2022.

This year’s figures are subject to change, because claims continue to be reported.

The peak month is, typically, in April, May or June.

Almost 600 claims have been reported so far in 2024. Last year, MPI received 2,438 total claims, down from 5,395 in 2022. The previous annual totals were 873 in 2021 and 961 in 2020.

As vehicles take a battering, autobody and tire shops are getting more pothole-related business than usual.

Robie Wong, who owns Urban Garage on St. Mary’s Road in St. Vital, said his shop usually doesn’t do any pothole-related repairs this early in the year. They’ve had a few customers recently.

“We’ve been seeing a ton of potholes in the streets,” said Wong. “You enjoy the nice weather, but that comes with the consequence of bad roads, which the city can’t fix quick enough.”

A blown tire could set a driver back about $200 to $300, he said, adding the cost could exceed $1,000 if a vehicle’s suspension requires repairs.

“Usually, it’s just blown-out tires and bent rims,” said Wong.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca