Thousands of tax dollars per day are being used to fill city potholes, an uphill battle brought on by a turbulent winter that is also costing drivers hundreds.
City workers have been applying fixes to damaged, high-volume roadways, but they often return several days later because those same fixes are deteriorating, said East Lansing Infrastructure Administrator Ron Lacasse.
The fixes are temporary because the pothole patches have little chance of bonding when the temperatures continue fluctuating below freezing and back, Lacasse said. Currently two crews are out repairing city roads daily, using rented trucks and equipment.
“(It can cost) $800 to $1,000 a day for a crew to be out potholing, and those crews have been out pretty nonstop since the weather has turned,” he said.
The temporary fixes are necessary because without them the numerous potholes jeopardize driver safety and can cost commuters repair expenses, he said.
Martin Washburne, owner of East Lansing Auto Pros, said more students and residents than usual are bringing their cars in with alignment issues and damaged steering and suspension components from potholes.
“We’ve been seeing a 300 percent increase this year than any other year,” Washburne said. “The average ticket we’re seeing in here is $400 to $600. Cars work like a domino effect, so if you don’t catch them early, it can lead to an expensive repairs later."
Hoping for consistency in temperature that would aid in better pothole patch bonding, Lacasse said the current rate of repairs could go on for nearly another month.
“We expect this to go on for anywhere from two to four more weeks, depending on what we get for weather,” Lacasse said.
Activities Director of the National Center for Pavement Preservation Larry Galehouse said that an efficient and less costly way of fixing potholes comes when preventing potholes.
“Pothole prevention begins in the warm weather sealing up the cracks on the road — if you have a crack on the pavement surface — so now all you can do is react,” Galehouse said. “To seal a crack is low cost, especially in the warm weather.”
While the Michigan Department of Transportation resurfaced Grand River Avenue last summer, preventing many potholes from appearing, other roadways in East Lansing may not be so fortunate in the future.
City officials assessed these roadways as troublesome pothole areas: North Harrison Road by the Kellogg Center, Hagadorn Road between Burcham drive and Haslett Road and the portion of Bogue Street south of Grand River Avenue. The roadways continuously have potholes appearing because of the condition of the roads’ asphalt and the volume of traffic.
Lacasse said the turbulent winter and pothole season have tapped into the city’s road maintenance funds, hampering preventative efforts next summer, unless the city receives money from the state.
Staff reporter Rafael López Aguilar contributed to this report.
