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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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City street crews change course with break in winter weather

Spokane Mayor David Condon, right, and street maintenance worker Dan LaPorte fill a pothole on North Belt Street after a Monday news conference about street maintenance. City workers patch potholes with a cold-weather mixture when weather permits and switch to hot asphalt when road-building season starts in the spring. (Jesse Tinsley)
By Mike Prager mikeprager15@gmail.com(509) 459-5454

Spokane street crews have gotten a break from snowplowing this winter, but the tradeoff is an early start to pothole season.

Monday, Spokane Mayor David Condon held a pothole-filling demonstration to talk about the effort to keep the holes filled. The mayor even got his hands a little dirty filling one of the holes on Belt Street just north of Boone Avenue.

“Snow removal is only a portion of what our street crews do during the winter,” Condon said.

Mark Serbousek, street maintenance director, said crews move to other chores when they get a winter-weather break, like filling potholes, sweeping streets, picking up leaves still on the streets from autumn, fixing guardrails, grading gravel streets and repairing equipment.

In the past five years, the department filled nearly 3,000 potholes annually with the exception of 2011, when they filled nearly 4,000 in what was apparently a pretty bad pothole season.

Potholes form as pavement cracks, giving water a chance to soak in. When freezing weather comes, the ice expands, forcing the pavement to separate. The problem is most evident near the end of winter when pavement temperatures rise above freezing.

About eight years ago, the department switched to a polymer-based pothole filler during winter months. While the mix is more expensive, it has proven to hold up better, in part because the material performs well at different outdoor temperatures, Serbousek said.

Condon said voter approval last fall of a street levy will allow the city to tackle more comprehensive repairs of failing streets.

Despite recent mild temperatures, Spokane road crews have been busy this winter on cold-weather chores. Freezing fog and rain have created icy streets even in the absence of snow. Since October, crews have spread 1,252 tons of sand and 634,700 gallons of liquid deicer. For the same period a year ago, they spread 409 tons of sand and 451,600 gallons of deicer.

Still, the street department is on target to come in below its winter maintenance budget by about $150,000, Condon said.