'We always ask for patience, but we understand the frustration': City prepares for pothole season

Ward 3 Councillor Matthew Shoemaker says that he noticed a public works crew working on the pothole issue along Bay Street around noon Thursday.

The city’s public works department plan on repairing more potholes along Bay Street in the coming days, but due to the current fluctuation in temperatures, the department says that it’s encountering new potholes almost daily.

Shoemaker says that the potholes along Bay Street are a safety concern.  

“We of course have to patch the road, because it’s in such dire state of disrepair that frankly, it’s probably a safety risk being the way it is in its current state,” said Shoemaker.

Public works has an annual budget of $650,000 specifically set aside for pothole repairs in the city.

“Typically they [public works] wait until the roads are dry and the frost is gone, because you can’t patch a wet hole, and you don’t want to patch a hole that still has frost down in it, because it’s just going to pop the patch out the day that the weather gets a bit warmer,” Shoemaker said.

Shoemaker says the City of Sault Ste. Marie hasn’t seen that much of an increase in road reconstruction budgets over the last 15 years.

“We are cognizant that this issue exists, and we are going to make sure that the roads get patched and filled as quickly as possible, and it’s obviously a budget area that needs to be looked at in the coming years,” he said.

Shoemaker says that public works has been working to get the roads ready for filling potholes.   

“I would say that our crews have been working six or seven days a week around the clock to get these roads in the shape that they need to be in, in order to start filling the holes when the weather starts to warm up,” said Shoemaker. “They’ve been doing bank removal, they’ve been doing scraping, they’ve been doing patching...they’re doing everything they can while dealing with an awful winter.”

“We always ask for patience, but we understand the frustration.”

In the meantime, the public can file an insurance claim against the city should a vehicle suffer extensive damage from potholes.

City of Sault Ste. Marie Risk Manager Adam Shier told SooToday via email that when a claim is received, it’s filtered through the appropriate departments before going to an independent insurance adjuster.

Shier says that the city receives about 150 damage claims, for pothole damage and other damages, each year on average.  

“If the city is deemed to be responsible for claimed damages (as per the independent review), the most we would pay is the current value of the damaged property,” Shier said via email.

More information on the claims process can be found here.