Lawrence public works employees with the street division department fill a large pothole near 22nd and Massachusetts streets. From left are Mike Hadl, Terry Fursman and Kevin Robb. Crews are working daily to repair the potholes, which occur more frequently during the winter cycle of freezing and thawing temperatures. This week alone, city crews have patched 1,714 holes.

A hubcab floats in a puddle of water Thursday near the intersection of Ninth and Louisiana streets. This year's winter weather has once again roughed up streets in Lawrence.

Cold, snowy winters often leave roads riddled with potholes. How does cold weather cause potholes?

“Everybody’s nightmare.”

That’s how a Lawrence asphalt company’s project manager described the potholes that have popped up across town after a roller coaster of weather.

Richard Kramer, project manager and estimator at Asphalt Improvement Co., said the recent high and low temperatures mixed with rain and snow have created the little monsters that have motorists cringing and cursing.

Jennifer Schack, 6News chief meteorologist, said during the past two weeks, there have been four snowfalls with temperatures ranging from the mid-50s to 12 degrees.

Until the cycle stops and temperatures stay above 50, the potholes only can be temporarily fixed with a cold-mix asphalt.

And that’s what city crews are busy doing. This week alone, they’ve patched 1,714 holes.

“It’s just an ongoing thing,” said Tom Orzulak, the city’s street division manager. “The last week’s been pretty tough.”

It’s especially frustrating because the temporary patches tend to fall apart so the potholes need to be fixed again and again.

“The problem is if you have a bad pothole and people are blowing their tires out, you have to do something with it so people don’t get hurt and don’t damage their car,” Orzulak said.

“You need ideal conditions to fix a hole right. As soon as the weather gets better, there are several places that we are going to have to go, and it’s going to require a more extensive fix, and we know that.”

Ideal conditions for permanent patching would be steady temperatures above 50 degrees and no precipitation. Schack said it could be late March or early April before Lawrence sees those kind of temperatures.

The waiting game

With a dozen jobs already on its list, Asphalt Improvement Co. is eager to get to work.

“We spend the wintertime working on prospective projects, and then when the spring hits and the projects begin – we go from a lull in the action to more than we can handle,” Kramer said.

Also waiting are businesses such as Yokohama Sushi Japanese Restaurant, 1730 W. 23rd St., where the parking lot is full of potholes. The owner said he has hired an asphalt company to fix the lot, but that job is pending better weather.

“It’s a very dangerous area,” said chef Koji who owns the restaurant.

He said the pothole problem is compounded by the extra cut-through traffic that flows through his lot. Koji said they have tried to fill the holes with gravel, but that hasn’t worked.

“Every time we fill it in, it just pops right back out,” he said.

He also isn’t looking forward to paying the bill – an estimated $8,000.

Not cheap

That number doesn’t surprise Kramer, who said the price of asphalt had increased about $5 a ton during the past few months because of oil prices. Crude oil hit a record $102.59 a barrel Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Kramer estimated that his company, which buys asphalt, uses about 100,000 tons a year. They charge about $50 to fill a 3-by-3-foot pothole that is 6 inches deep.

“When we feel it in our gas tanks, we also feel it on the asphalt side too because we need oil to make asphalt,” Kramer said.

But city leaders said prices haven’t been a problem. The cold-mix asphalt that they buy from a Kansas City company costs $49 a ton. They used about 60 tons this month.

Dena Mezger, the city assistant director of public works, said funding for the street maintenance program is about the same as last year: $5.3 million.

“Potholes represent just a very small portion of that,” she said. “That’s something that we are not going to not fix.”

How it works

And so the filling continues.

Crews begin by attending to potholes called in on the hotline or reported through the city’s Web site. They try to fix main roads within 24 hours and side streets within 48 hours. After that, it’s “hit and miss.”

“Our crews will basically go look for them,” Mezger said. “For the most part, they just kind of work through area by area and patch as many as they can.”

Danger zones

In the meantime, drivers need to be careful because hitting a pothole can be costly.

“There’s been lots of tires that have been damaged beyond repair and lots of alignment problems,” said Phil Dwyer, owner of D & D Tire Co., 1000 Vt.

He said repair costs can range from $20 to $800.

Those are the types of damages that Jayhawk Taxi driver Neil Moore hopes to avoid.

“I’ve hit a few of them just because sometimes there is nothing that you can do,” he said. “And there’s some bad ones – really bad ones.”

He mentioned the streets around Lawrence High School and Kentucky Street as being particularly bad.

A Hy-Vee Food and Drug Store delivery driver added the Old West Lawrence neighborhood and Lawrence Holidome’s parking lot to that list.

“That is a disaster, and we take a lot of wedding cakes there,” Jordan Brown said. “Those are scary when you come across some potholes.”

So, what does he do?

“Just hit the brakes and pray for the best,” he said jokingly. “There have been some incidences where we’ve had some close calls, but never where it destroyed a cake or anything.”

Kate Westcott, guest services manager, said the hotel plans to have the parking lot resurfaced this spring after having potholes filled in July. She said potholes are tricky for drivers even in the summer.

“We have ice sculptures that we do in the summertime, and those are so risky. We haven’t broken any, luckily, but it is quite difficult and we have to drive very carefully.”