The traditional freeze and thaw cycle that happens each year as late winter turns into early spring has city crews and hired contractors out filling cracks and holes in city streets.
Thaws result in water seeping into small cracks in the asphalt and because water expands when it freezes, asphalt breaks into chunks and potholes appear.
“Our pothole filling costs from November 1, 2022 up until Feb 28, 2023 amount to a total of $175, 568.63 based on the figures available currently,” reported City of Terrace communications official Tyler Clarke.
“This figure includes labour, overhead, equipment, and materials used.”
The city either has one of its own employees out patrolling the streets equipped with bags of pothole filler or, for more extreme cases this year, Wiebe Contracting crews are on the job.
By comparison, the 2022 pothole season saw nearly $93,000 spent between Jan. 1, 2022 and Feb. 25, 2022 with nearly $44,000 of that total being the cost of 50 tonnes of pothole mix.
From January 2020 to Feb. 25, 2022 the bill was $621,029.
Of that total, about 40 per cent or $248,194 was spent on pothole mix and 5,846 hours were devoted to filling in holes.
People in Terrace can report potholes to the public works department by calling 250-615-4021.