Irony can be expensive. Emily Strusz hit a “ginormous” pothole on Iowa Street two weeks ago — while she was driving her car to the shop for an oil change and tuneup.
“As a poor college student, you cross your fingers that this one didn’t pop your tire or bend your rim,” Strusz said.
No luck. The mechanics told Strusz, a senior from Republic, Mo., that her rim was cracked and bent. A new one cost her $150.
“I’m used to hitting potholes in this town,” she said. “Lawrence is notorious for potholes and bumps in the road.”
But Lawrence may now have a solution to its annual pothole problem — a long-lasting fix for any time of the year.
“Notorious”
If you search “Eudora, KS potholes” on Google, you get 1,500 results. For Topeka, there are 15,000 results. Going east down K-10, DeSoto has 21,000, Olathe has 19,000 and Overland Park has 37,000 Google results.
But search “Lawrence, KS potholes” and there are 80,000 results. Only Wichita has more Internet pothole buzz with 240,000 results.
Lawrence is infamous for its special winter crop, the pothole, that pops up when winter weather and snow pulls apart asphalt’s structure. That reputation has been cemented in recent years when city crews were unable to make long-lasting patches.
“People got frustrated because they saw guys throwing asphalt in a hole, driving over it and pulling away,” said Mark Thiel, assistant public works director.
They did that because they only had a cold mix blend of asphalt available, which fixed the pothole for a day or two before it needed repair again. The hot mix asphalt — which is the blend for permanent fixes — can’t be used in cold months.
In addition to its two-day lifespan, the cold mix is also limited by road conditions: It can’t be used if the ground is too wet or cold.
Thiel said that during last winter — which was particularly snowy and harsh — city crews were patching up as many as 400 to 500 holes a day with the temporary mix.
A new fix
But now the city has a new machine that allows city crews to apply a permanent fix in any month.
It’s called spray-injection patching, and it works like this: the crew clears the hole of debris, sprays oil into the hole, fills it with oily rocks, then regular rocks, and then rakes over it to try to even it out. You can tell a patch is from the new machine if it has reddish-brown rocks.
Instead of hours, Thiel expected the spray-injection patches to last months, if not years.
It can be applied while snow is still on the ground. The wetness doesn’t matter, Thiel said, only that the asphalt is above freezing temperatures.
Thiel said the traditional process could take five workers 30 minutes to fill a hole, while the new machine takes two workers five minutes, “with the same — if not better — results.”
The new machine cost $168,000, which Thiel said was closely comparable to the price tag of the traditional machines the city could have bought.
“It was an easy decision,” Thiel said.
Thiel said the city would continue to use its older cold mix technology after storms and whenever the city gets into pothole “crunch time.” The old fixes would be needed after storms to provide temporary relief until the new machine can stop by.
“It’s only one machine and we’ve got 800 miles of roadway to take care of,” Thiel said. “We obviously can’t be everywhere right away.”
But the idea is to reduce the overall amount of potholes “that pop back up after a storm,” he said, which should mean easier maintenance and quicker responses.
The city bought the machine in September and has used it since, filling up potholes across town.
“We’re trying to get ahead of the winter,” Thiel said, like a football coach talking about an old rival.
— Edited by Alex Tretbar
SIDEBAR: D&D Tire, 1000 Vermont St., receives customers with small and big pothole problems.
Jason Climer, the shop foreman, said the immediate impact of driving over a pothole can result in a damaged tire, broken rim or problems with the car’s alignment.
But there can be long-term effects also. If a driver allows bad alignment to go untreated, then the tires will prematurely wear out and there might be lingering steering problems.
If a driver hits a pothole hard enough, the car’s tie-rod ends can break or take damage, Climer said, meaning safety issues for the driver.
Report a pothole to the city with this report form.
Pothole reporting phone number: (785) 832-3456
