Kelly Sewell with the City of Chilliwack’s public works department fills in a pothole on Prest Road north of Bailey Road on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020. (Jenna Hauck/ The Progress)

Kelly Sewell with the City of Chilliwack’s public works department fills in a pothole on Prest Road north of Bailey Road on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020. (Jenna Hauck/ The Progress)

Pothole patching crews in Chilliwack are hard at it in the wake of the big thaw

How is the pothole problem across Chilliwack? 'It's pretty bad,' says city operations director

Potholes are popping up across Chilliwack after a hard freeze a couple of weeks ago was followed by a fairly rapid thaw.

So how bad is it out there over 600-plus kilometres of roads in Chilliwack?

“It’s pretty bad,” said Glen MacPherson, Operations department director for the city.

Two public works crews were on pothole duty Tuesday using the custom-built patching trucks to fill holes with hot mix. They used to only have one patching machine and would contract out for another crew, but two crews now tackle the potholes.

The biggest challenges are found along busy arterial routes: Vedder, Prest, Evans, Young, Chilliwack Central roads.

READ MORE: 2017 was a bad year for potholes

But many others have also been reported recently, and there’s been lots of discussion and interest in the topic on the Progress Facebook page.

Potholes form when snow and ice seeps into cracks in the road.

“When it thaws, the cracks collapse into themselves and potholes start to form in traffic,” MacPherson said. “We have crews looking for them but there are so many we can’t get them all.”

Report potholes by phone at 604-793-2810, or email to operations@chilliwack.com

Any pothole hazards city officials are notified about will be patched with a couple of days. The city website has a page just for pothole information, and they’ll be focused on patching potholes for a couple of weeks.

“Any reports are appreciated,” MacPherson said. “And we do commit to fixing any reported potholes within two working days.”

READ MORE: A bad winter means more potholes


Do you have something to add to this story, or something else we should report on? Email: jfeinberg@theprogress.com


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Chilliwack Progress