Patching underway, money to dictate full depth repairs

If you have a friend who is part of the local DOT’s maintenance crew, chances are your friend has had little time of late for you. The boss at the Department of Transportation facility, Michael Smith, says the crews have been busy filling potholes and picking up after storm damage. Smith says, “We are working diligently on repairing the road surfaces as best we can.” But this month’s rain has made poor practice the usual way of using a patching truck to keep the potholes filled. “The rain will dilute the emulsion to the point where it will track onto the road surface rather than binding the stone into the holes,” Smith says. “We have been using the bag patch in the wet holes as it seems to hold better with all of this moisture. In areas of base failure, we hope to make full depth repairs as soon as funding becomes available.” Meantime, you can help the DOT by reporting potholes by calling the office at 864/647-0798.