SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — If you drive in the Bay Area, chances are you’ve already hit a pothole.
“Every county is seeing potholes. We have our maintenance crews out right now doing those repairs,” said Pedro Quintana, Caltrans public information officer.
From the air, SKY7 captured crews repairing potholes Monday in the northbound lanes of Highway 101 in Redwood City. Up close, the numbers are staggering. In San Francisco, the public works department reports an average of 600 potholes per month. They have already exceeded this number in the first 13 days of January. Our roads are also saturated with potholes.
MORE: 391 pothole reports in Bay Area in past 12 days, Caltrans says
“In 2022 for the entire month of January, we had about 380 potholes reported across the region. From this month, January 1, 2023, to date, we have seen over 400 potholes reported on the roads” , Quintana said.
What causes them? It turns out that the rain is only compounding the damage that was already there.
“We’re playing catch-up right now and we just had this big rain, so a lot of these pavements that cracked when we didn’t have enough money, now the water is coming in and pieces are coming out,” he said. John Harvey.
MORE: ‘Pothole Vigilantes’ go out at night to fix Oakland’s streets
UC Davis professor John Harvey is the director of the UC Pavement Research Center. In the lab, his team is testing a mix of materials to help our roads last longer.
“We’re looking at higher recycled content by using old asphalt pavement in new asphalt pavement, but with something called rejuvenators. We’re looking at concrete that has less cement,” Professor Harvey said, adding: ” Using tire rubber on the surface. Recycled tire rubber helps us get asphalt overlays that would last longer. They can ride over the cracks better and handle that movement over the cracks. There are also polymers that are included in the ‘asphalt. We’re starting to look a little bit at recycled roofing shingles. And in the future, further down the road, start looking at pine-based resins and oils to put into the pavement to help soften and recycle.”
Professor Harvey says more needs to be done to maintain roads, not just react when potholes occur.
“Those cracks there. The damage was done over years of underinvestment,” Professor Harvey said.
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Are potholes natural?
Are the potholes weathered or eroded? Potholes form as road bed particles are removed (eroded) by tires falling onto the road; gravity drags (erosion) loose rocks from mountain slopes; rainwater concentrates and flows into channels that collect sediment as it moves (erosion)… These “movements” describe erosion.
How are natural potholes formed?
A hole is formed when a circular stream of water carrying small pebbles and sediment begins to wear away the surface of the rock. The force of the water and the sediment it carries is greater than the resistance of the rock. Once the process starts, it continues and the rock in that place continues to erode.
What’s the difference between a pothole and a sinkhole?
What is the difference between a hole and a hole? A hole is a perforation in the street surface. A hole is the soil wash around a hole. To see also : REAL ESTATE TRANSFERS | News, Sports, Jobs. Sinkholes can be reported to Public Works and/or directly to American Water at (856) 635-1496.
What causes potholes to form in roadways?
What causes a hole? Potholes are created when the top layer of pavement and the material below it, called the base or subbase, cannot support the weight of traffic. To see also : Massachusetts real estate transactions for Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties July 31, 2022. Two factors are always present in a failure of this type: TRAFFIC and WATER.
Are potholes formed by erosion or deposition? It is created by the erosive forces of turbulence generated by water falling over the rocks at the base of a waterfall where the water impacts. Potholes are also sometimes known as eddies.
What causes potholes on gravel roads?
Water is the biggest contributor to the deterioration of unpaved roads. Regardless of whether it seeps from above or below, water simply destroys roads. This may interest you : Summer travel is hell this year. In addition to rutting and eroding the unsealed road surface, water causes potholes to develop.
What type of weathering causes potholes in the road?
âMechanical weathering is the breakdown of rocks into sediments by physical means. For example, weathering can cut holes in our streets, break rocks to form soils and even topple mountains.â€
How can we make roads more durable?
With the tires rolling on the pavement instead of bouncing over bumps and bumps, smooth roads last longer than their textured counterparts, because all that bouncing accelerates the rate at which the road deteriorates. In fact, just a 25% increase in pavement smoothness can increase pavement longevity by 10%.
Why can’t we build roads that last? Concrete is strong and durable, but building roads with it is complex, expensive, and slow… you need a lot of rebar, the concrete needs to cure, etc. Concrete roads also tend to be noisy and slippery when wet (although this can be fixed), and when they do eventually fail, they’re a pain to repair.
What is an alternative to asphalt for roads?
Concrete roads are definitely a viable alternative and while they are very durable and comparatively more environmentally friendly, they are also significantly more expensive.
What is the most durable road material?
One of the main advantages of concrete pavements is that they tend to be stronger and more durable than asphalt roads. They can also be grooved to provide a slip-resistant surface.
