‘Protect the roads from the elements of Mother Nature’: City of Bend crews patching up potholes from winter storm

(Update: Adding video, comments from city officials)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- With a series of winter storms over, at least for now, the city of Bend is getting to work on the post-freeze potholes.

Winter weather has left behind dozens of new holes on city streets. So far this year, crews have repaired 71. Even with all that freeze and thaw, compared to last year, there's less of a pothole problem -   in January of 2023, the city covered more than 300.  

"Potholes form when when the moisture can get into the road structure roadways, and then that freeze-thaw cycle, and it expands. When it freezes, that's what pops out asphalt," David Abbas, director of the city's Transportation & Mobility Department, said Tuesday. "So we've been working hard for a number of years now to improve our conditions of the system."

When there's a service request made on the Bend Works website, the city says it has one asphalt crew patching those up within 48 hours. 

The asphalt maintenance lead, Josh Oliver, tells us about the process.

"That's an asphalt rejuvenating plant," he said. "Just like the regular plant -- it's just on a smaller scale. We put recycled asphalt in it, heat it up to the right temperature, and then add asphalt oil to that, and it comes out just like regular asphalt."

 Material to fill the potholes runs about $65 a ton.

Oliver said, "When we show up at the location, there's a chain that dumps the asphalt out into, usually a wheelbarrow or something smaller. We put that, fill that into the pothole, and then use compactor or roller to compact it into the pothole."

When it comes to allowing time for the repairs to set, crews can run into an issue with traffic. 

Oliver added, "We're not able to let it set near as long as it needs to. We'd have to close travel (lanes) and stuff like that. Sometimes we can't. So we typically give it about 15 or 20 minutes to cool down."

The recent break in the weather has allowed crews to work whenever a new hole develops. 

Abbas said, "Our street preservation program -- same idea -- protect our seal, our asphalt seal our roads. Protect the roads from the elements of Mother Nature."

 When it comes to filling the potholes, crews drive the portable asphalt plant around to cover them, as requests come in, or when crews spot them out on the road.