It certainly feels less wintry outside on Tuesday, but the sudden warm up is wreaking havoc on many local roads.
In many areas it seems like potholes are popping up overnight. Newschannel 3 found a perfect example in Kalamazoo where we found ten potholes within less than ten feet.
Road crews say they have been kept very busy lately.
With spring-like weather, comes spring-like work.
The Van Buren County Road Commission says they’ll patch about a thousand potholes this week.
Supervisor Brian Cornish says it’s not a common job for January.
“The warm temperatures, and now we’re getting the rain,” said Cornish. “The rain is pushing the frost out of the ground, so that creates potholes.”
Newschannel 3 meteorologists are forecasting temperatures in the 50s for the coming weekend and many local counties have been trading out the snow plows for the patching shovels.
Kalamazoo County says in just the past 24 hours they’ve received ten service requests for potholes. M-DOT has also taken a number of reports for state roadways.
People Newschannel 3 spoke with say driving on local roads has become a dangerous game that you can’t win, you can try to dodge the potholes, but hitting one is inevitable.
Road crews are out putting down cold patches, which are just a temporary fix until they can use the more permanent hot mix asphalt in the spring. Road commissions say it’s the best solution in the mid-winter race against Mother Nature.
“They’ll pop up overnight,” said Cornish. “We try to keep the roads as safe as we can in a reasonable matter.”
READ MORE AT: http://wwmt.com/news/local/warm-weather-has-potholes-blooming-in-west-michigan