Tis the season of the pothole

SUSSEX COUNTY—From the rainy days and nights of autumn to the last snowstorm of the season, the vicissitudes of winter weather are to potholes what April showers are to May flowers. As state, county and municipal road crews tour their jurisdictions around Sussex County, looking for potholes and filling them in, Sussex County Road Supervisor Stephen Losey took a moment this week to explain how your suspension's worst enemy forms. It's water, plain and simple, he said. When it seeps through cracks into a road's subsurface, it freezes and thaws through the winter, expanding and contracting the asphalt above. "It fluctuates up and down, and then all of a sudden it cracks and cracks and cracks, it loses its structure and it just falls apart," said Losey. This year, though, hasn't been a particularly bad one for local roads, said Edward Snook, Vernon's director of public works. "I have two crews because the town's divided into two sections, and I have a supervisor also," said Snook. The crews look for potholes on their own, and the department also responds to calls from motorists. "Surprisingly, we haven't had that many phone calls," Snook said. "So far, it's an average year, which surprises me." "It's about an average year," agreed Franklin's road department superintendent, Mike Gunderman. "We have material on hand that we buy before the season. We try to canvass the town at least once a week, depending on the weather, of course. Potholes are not a big problem for us." At this time of year, when the weather is still cold, crews use a material called cold patch to temporarily fill potholes. As its name implies, the pliable substance doesn't need to be heated to be laid down, which means it also never completely hardens, as does asphalt. When the temperatures begin to rise with the arrival of summer, hot patch, an asphalt material that hardens into the road, is the final solution for the more vexing potholes. "They don't manufacture hot asphalt all winter," said Franklin's road department superintendent, Mike Gunderman. "Once it cools down, it's impossible to work with; it goes into almost a brick form." Gunderman, like others in his business, respond to problems phoned in by motorists. But it's a matter of pride for him and his crews to locate and fill the holes before motorists call. "And believe me, the way that we do it, it's very rare to get a phone call," Gunderman added. "I've had maybe five in the last 10 years. It's a preventive maintenance thing. If we see potholes, we fill them. We don't let them get bigger." When it comes to county or state roads, however, towns usually ask callers to contact those authorities instead. In the meantime, because there are potholes everywhere, many unlucky motorists can find that avoiding potholes after dark are a problem, even more so if that pothole is filled with water. That leads to costly mechanical repairs that last longer than the potholes themselves. "So many people hit potholes, it gives you business throughout the summer," conceded John Fuch's, the owner of Superior Auto in Hamburg. "I recommend that people get re-alignments in the spring, after the roads get fixed. It makes no sense to do it in winter."