Twin Cities drivers deal with brutal potholes on roadways as winter leaves its mark

Frederick Melo, Pioneer Press
·5 min read

Record snowfalls, perilous sidewalks, narrowed streets and one-sided parking bans have marked this year’s winter for the Twin Cities.

Now sizable craters on roadways — as in potholes large enough to bend a wheel or puncture a tire — are the next addition to the complaint list.

“The phones are lighting up like crazy,” said Michael Lopez, a manager at Tires Plus on Snelling Avenue.

Heavy snows, rising temperatures, daytime melt, overnight freeze and rain — it all adds up to a series of freeze-thaw cycles that have jackhammered tired streets across the metro. In some cases, roads have been left nearly unnavigable. On Shepard Road in St. Paul, posted advisories warn drivers of a “rough road” and call for reducing driving speeds from 50 mph to 35 mph.

“This year the freeze-thaw cycles were really detrimental for the roads,” said Manik Barman, an associate professor in the department of civil engineering at the University of Minnesota Duluth. “Water is the enemy of the road, I tell my students all the time.”

In St. Paul, Nate Hood found a dose of creative energy in pothole season by inviting neighbors on the Highland Neighborhood Group Facebook page this weekend to post their “best, most artistic” photo of the biggest pothole they could find.

“Driving in this city is like playing a real-life game of Mario Kart,” wrote Hood, who received a tongue-in-cheek entry featuring a rubber duck wading inside a series of pond-like holes in the street. The winner of his competition — as judged solely by Hood’s 5-year-old daughter Hadley — will be announced Wednesday and receive a $10 gift card to Target, he said.

Readers submit photos, warnings

Some photo submissions have been even more eye-opening than alarming, revealing historic brick streets and the tracks of old streetcar lines beneath the asphalt.

Readers were invited Tuesday to submit written descriptions of pockmarked roads to the Pioneer Press “Morning Report” newsletter, and more than one driver pointed to craters forming along stretches of Shepard Road, Fairview Avenue, Wheelock Parkway and Snelling Avenue at Sargent Avenue, by Macalester College in St. Paul.

With road priorities in mind, St. Paul Public Works Director Sean Kershaw took to social media on Tuesday to riff on the title of the recent Oscar-winning film “Everything, Everywhere All At Once,” which was also “the working title of my (Public Works Quarter 1) report to the mayor. I hear this is taken. I’m open to suggestions.”

St. Paul Public Works sent two crews around town on Tuesday to fill up potholes, as they’re able, using a temporary “cold patch,” which is basically asphalt without the liquid binding agent. The cold patch is more permeable to water and doesn’t stick as well as a bituminous hot mix, which won’t be available until temperatures climb.

In an interview, Kershaw said it likely wouldn’t be until toward the end of March or so before the city’s bituminous plant opens.

“The temperature’s not working in our favor,” he said. “In two weeks we’ll be able to do longer-lasting solutions. It’s not the nuisance that is the priority — it’s the damage to cars and the threat to public safety.”

That said, potholes are hardly limited to the capital city.

“Pelham (Boulevard) from the East River Parkway to I-94 is a disaster,” wrote reader Susan Weisz on Tuesday. “The concrete streets have deteriorated and any asphalt is like moon craters. I tried going the river road to Franklin Ave and from Emerald to Franklin. It is even worse (that’s Minneapolis so I reported it to them). Shepard Road is also a disaster from the bridge over Highway 5 to I-35.”

St. Paul’s sales tax proposal would fund reconstruction of some of the most pockmarked roads

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter has warned residents to brace for one of the most difficult driving seasons in recent memory, and he’s pointed to the emerging pothole problem as further proof that state lawmakers this season should approve his proposal to triple the local sales tax to 1.5% to pay for major road repair on 25 arterial and collector streets.

The tax would produce roughly $1 billion over 20 years, including nearly $750 million for road repair. The rest would go toward parks projects.

If the mayor’s proposal is approved by the Legislature, it still has to get approval by city voters. Kershaw noted that many of the most pothole-riddled streets also are on the priority list for reconstruction if the sales tax is approved. Fairview Avenue is scheduled for a major road makeover this year.

“There are hot spots all around town,” said Kershaw, noting record or near-record winter humidity has been a major contributor. “We’re hearing about Fairview, we’re hearing about Snelling, we’re hearing about Grand. Fairview is pretty bad. … This winter has made it a textbook pothole-producing situation.”

Snow in the forecast for the rest of the week

National Weather Service forecasts call for temperatures as high as 42 degrees on Wednesday, which should produce some melt, followed by rain on Thursday and then snow on Thursday night possibly continuing into Friday or even Saturday. Snowfall could result in as much as five inches of new accumulation in and around St. Paul, though some of that could veer to the north or south of the Twin Cities, or shift to more rain.

If there’s a silver lining, it’s likely that temperatures next Tuesday should be in the 40s again, signaling the start of a warming period.

Before then, Kershaw noted that pothole crews will soon be back on snowplowing duty.

“We’re going to have more snow this weekend, and rain,” he said. “We’ll find out if that makes it worse or just continues the frustration.”

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