Toronto city crews hit the streets for spring pothole repair blitzes
Potholes are an annual occurrence in Canada after a long, harsh winter. The Weather Network spoke with Toronto's road operations manager to find out how the city tackles filling potholes in the spring.
Anyone who drives on the streets of Toronto knows the city has a pothole problem...especially in the spring.
But that’s no surprise to city officials.
SEE ALSO: Why do roads crack in the winter?
In fact, they start making repair plans long before the last snowflakes fall.
“We work through the winter and we get our resources ready, we train our staff, and we purchase new equipment, or make sure our equipment is maintained with the idea that we know or have a significant amount of potholes in the springtime," said Greg McMillan, City of Toronto road operations manager, in a recent interview with The Weather Network.
Toronto officials get ready to fix a pothole. (Michael Vann/The Weather Network)
When weather finally permits, city crews hit the streets for their pothole repair blitzes.
This year's repairs have already outpaced last year’s spring blitzes by more than 10,0000 potholes.
By the end of the year, the city will repair hundreds of thousands of potholes, all while using equipment especially designed for local streets.
“Downtown is a much more condensed area. We have equipment that can go into bike lanes. We have equipment going laneways, tight roads, and then we have larger equipment that can go on major roads, expressways, or Yonge Street, where we can do a large amount of repairs with this single unit," said McMillan.
Watch the video preceding the article to get the full story on how Toronto fixes its spring potholes.