A Pothole Cover-Up? North Idaho Streets, Roads Cratered With Shocking Evidence

The mere mention of potholes Thursday was met with denial by public agencies around Kootenai County.

“We don’t have any,” joked Herb Heisel, road supervisor with the Post Falls Highway District. A second later, he admitted that crews were out slinging cold asphalt mix in an attempt to save tires, brakes and wheel alignments.

Hazel Fletcher, Post Falls public works secretary, also was in a state of denial.

“We don’t have any potholes,” she said with feigned innocence.

What about those temporary street workers the city hired to fill in chuckholes with cold asphalt?

Uh, they’re on loan to Coeur d’Alene, she fibbed.

The nagging problem of potholes - an unfailing reminder of civilization’s vulnerability - has gotten worse in recent weeks.

The evidence is in jarring drives across town and flagged warning signs along streets. Some highway districts have put load limits on roads to keep the damage to a minimum.

The rash of potholes isn’t the fault of public servants, however.

Rather, the changing weather and general road wear and tear are the culprits.

Street and highway employees are in high gear these days trying to patch the contagious pockmarks, heaves and sinkholes. The problem’s likely to get worse before it gets better, they say.

“At our cemetery, they dug a grave yesterday, and there still was a foot of frost in the ground,” said Dick Frank, Post Falls streets supervisor.

Once that frost melts, more potholes are likely to appear.

“It’s been a bad year,” Frank said. “It’s been one of those freeze-and-thaw years. That’s bad for the streets.”

The freezing and thawing cracks pavement. Water gets in the cracked pavement, freezes and cracks it even more. Last week’s flooding didn’t help.

“We’re getting quite a few streets breaking up,” said a refreshingly honest Jim Norlander, Coeur d’Alene’s assistant street superintendent.

“We’re going to have a lot more streets to fix this summer when we get the hot mix plants running,” he said. The hot asphalt will replace all the cold mix being used now.

The mechanics at Alton’s Tire and Automotive Center in Coeur d’Alene had one car towed up from Plummer this winter after it landed in a gargantuan pothole.

Most recent tire damage has been caused from icy streets sending cars sliding into curbs, said Rick Hulbert of Alton’s.

They’ll see more pothole damage a few months from now, after alignment problems cause serious tire damage, he said.

“It’s always a good idea at the end of the season to have your alignment checked, just to prevent that problem,” he advised.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: How frost-heaves form