‘It’s like a minefield’: Northern Ont. drivers frustrated with potholes as thousands appear on roads
Just take a drive up and down Premier Road in North Bay and you will be able to tell the south end street has quite a pothole problem.
The road was voted as the 12th worst Ontario road in a previous Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) worst roads survey.
"I've been on this road for 20 years now and this time of the year always has been for lack of a better terms ups and downs,” said resident Tom Diggles.
From little holes to wide, gaping holes, potholes are not new for those who need to take the road to and from home, or to get the mail.
"Oh it's like a minefield. You're dodging and you don't know which way to go, left or right,” said driver Elaine Tormasy.
“You're always dodging."
With spring comes pothole season. It can be a bumpy ride for drivers as crews scramble to fix the roads and fill the pesky potholes temporarily fixing as many as they can.
North Bay Public Works crews were on Northshore Road sweeping holes clean and filling them with a cold mix patching. It’s a temporary fix until summer when the crews will use their portable asphalt plant to make longer-term hot mix repairs.
North Bay Public Works crews were on Northshore Road sweeping holes clean and filling them with a cold mix patching on Friday. (Eric Taschner/CTV News Northern Ontario)
- Download our app to get local alerts on your device
- Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
"Come summer time we do a more much permanent repair,” said David Pledge, a charge hand with the city’s road department.
“But in the meantime, there's a thaw and a freeze we have to have something to temporarily fix it.”
Potholes become much more prevalent in the spring due to the freeze-thaw cycle. Water seeps into road cracks in the pavement.
Temperatures drop and the water in the soil freezes and expands, pushing up the asphalt. The constant traffic load breaks the asphalt causing surface holes. Further traffic load and weather conditions continue to cause the granular base to erode leaving potholes.
Potholes can cause some significant damage to your car.
Officials said the most common types of damage are loss of a hubcap, a damaged tire, a bent or broken wheel, wheels knocked out of alignment, damaged suspension components, bent steering parts and damaged shock absorbers. This damage can often ‘cost a pretty penny.’
"Based on our estimates, we've heard anywhere from $300 to $6,000 of repairs due to potholes and I know every year they we hear this is the worst year,” said CAA’s Senior Director of Public Affairs, Kristine D’Arbelles.
“I really feel this year, they are the worst."
CAA said the best thing to do when approaching a pothole is safely maneuver around it if you can. If that's not possible, take your foot off the gas or brake pedal and gently coast over the hole.
"If you start braking or pushing on the gas then you're also creating a front and back movement which will also happen as the same time as the up and down and that can wreak a lot of havoc on your vehicle," said D’Arbelles.
The City of North Bay does have a claims process for vehicle damage from potholes. However, very few claims have ever been processed.
The city says that when making a claim against it for pothole damage, it's important to note that it will not be responsible for damage if it has met the provincial ‘Minimum Maintenance Standards of Ontario’ (MMS).
The MMS is comprised of a series of standards for various aspects of road maintenance (patrolling, salting, clearing snow and pothole repair) which vary, depending on the speed limit and traffic volume on a particular roadway in accordance with these standards:
- Potholes in higher speed roads and high-volume roads are repaired more quickly than ones on side streets
- On main (arterial) roads, the City strives to repair potholes within four days from the date they are reported
- On secondary collector roads, the City has seven days to repair potholes
- On side streets, the City has 30 days to repair potholes
Crews are asking drivers to report a pothole to Public Works so they can get out and repair it.
Until then, CAA officials said it's all about dodging them until they are repaired.
"They keep coming back like a bad blister,” chuckled Tormasy.
The CAA is launching its annual worst roads survey of Ontario’s most damaged and unsafe roads where the public can vote on the worst roads in their area. The results are collated, assessed by a team of experts at the Ontario Road Builders Association (ORBA) and shared with municipal and provincial leaders.
In a recent CAA member survey, Ontarians’ most common complaint about potholes.
In 2022, for the northern Ontario region Algonquin Boulevard East in Timmins earned the worst honours with Lansing Ave, Paris Street and Fielding Road in Greater Sudbury making up three of the remaining top five.
The full results and ‘winners’ in Ontario from CAA’s 2022 Worst Road campaign can be found here.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6944829.1719591965!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
TREND LINE Trudeau Liberals 'under siege' across the country, with Conservatives cracking red 'fortresses' like Toronto and Vancouver: Nanos
Hot on the heels of the Conservatives’ stunning byelection victory in the riding of Toronto—St. Paul’s, new seat projection data from Nanos Research show ridings considered previously safe for the Liberals are increasingly up for grabs.
Is homemade sunscreen safe to use? Here's why it's 'a horrible idea,' according to experts
If you could make sunscreen with items found in your kitchen pantry, should you do it? Posts from social media influencers and bloggers including recipes to make your own sunscreen have been wildly circulated online, but the dermatologists who spoke to CTVNews.ca call it a 'horrible idea.'
Ontario MPP removed from PC caucus over 'serious lapses in judgment'
Premier Doug Ford has removed a member of his caucus due to what he’s describing as 'serious lapses in judgment.' In a statement released Friday morning, the premier’s office said MPP Goldie Ghamari had been removed from the Progressive Conservative caucus 'effective immediately.'
Need multiple alarms to wake up in the morning? Here's what could be happening, according to experts
If you are clogging your clock app with multiple morning alarms, you’re setting yourself up for a groggy morning, experts say.
Biden's Democratic allies admit he had a poor debate but say they're still standing behind him
U.S. President Joe Biden strained to quell Democratic anxieties over his unsteady showing in his debate with former U.S. president Donald Trump, as elected members of his party closed ranks around him in an effort to shut down talks of replacing him atop the ticket.
Russia to prepare a 'response' to U.S. drones over Black Sea
Russia's defence minister ordered officials to prepare a 'response' to U.S. drone flights over the Black Sea, the ministry said Friday, in an apparent warning that Moscow may take forceful action to ward off the American reconnaissance aircraft.
The U.S. Supreme Court weakens federal regulators, overturning decades-old Chevron decision
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upended a 40-year-old decision that made it easier for the federal government to regulate the environment, public health, workplace safety and consumer protections, delivering a far-reaching and potentially lucrative victory to business interests.
A harmless asteroid will whiz past Earth Saturday. Here's how to spot it
Called 2024 MK, the space rock will make its closest approach to Earth Saturday morning, passing by at about three-quarters the distance from Earth to the moon. It was first spotted two weeks ago by a South African observatory and is about 393 feet to 853 feet (120 metres to 260 metres) wide.
A mother's pain as the first victim of Kenya's deadly protests is buried
Edith Wanjiku holds onto one of the few photos she's left with of her teenage son Ibrahim Kamau. His life was cut short by two gunshot wounds to his neck that were sustained during Kenya's deadly protests on Tuesday in which more than 20 people were killed.