Potholes a growing focus of Bend street workers

As the snow and ice melt off the roads, some more unwelcome features are popping up – potholes.

With all the freezing and thawing we’ve seen over the last few weeks, it’s no surprise, but no less frustrating, that potholes are showing up just about everywhere now.

But we could have a lot more driving hazards had the city of Bend not pre-emptively filled potholes in the fall.

“Last fall, if you might recall, we did a temporary pothole crew,” Bend Director of Streets David Abbas said Monday.”(They) were proactively out there, covering every city street and looking for them and patching them.”

Locals have a generally positive opinion of the job the city has done on the streets.

“I think the roads so far this winter are much better than last winter,” Bend resident Taylor Bacci said,

Another Bend resident said, “They’re probably doing the best they can with what money and what things (they have).”

As one might imagine, street workers have had their hands full.

“It’s caused some problems,” Abbas said. “I don’t have a current tally or total count, but I know one day the crews patched 90 of them.”

The city of Bend already has many of the potholes around town patched up. But it’s tougher in the winter because they can’t use the usual warm mix that lasts a while, and instead have to use a cold mix that’s only temporary.

As a result, some of those potholes might have to be re-patched two or three times over the span of a few weeks.

If you want to let the city know about potholes to tackle, visit: http://www.bendoregon.gov/services/online-services/citizen-service-request-form-public-works.