Whoever wrote “Winter Wonderland” had obviously never driven on — or repaired — a winter road.

In the winter, subzero temperatures and freezing water cause roads to swell, split, crack and bubble ,and make driving along high-traffic roads feel as if you’re skating down Mount Rushmore on rollerblades.

To top it off, hot asphalt factories close in the winter, forcing road crews to fill problematic potholes with the vastly inferior “cold patch.”

CHUCK HUMEL/CHRONICLE

Assistant foreman Michael Cales, of Vermilion, tamps down cold patch in a pothole on Oberlin Road. Behind him are Phil Duncan, of Elyria, and Jake Podrosky, of Amherst.

And when the mercury yo-yos like it has this year, thawing and refreezing ground water can make wintertime pothole plugging a fool’s errand.

Even in an ideal scenario, a pothole repaired in winter is really just a pothole waiting to be fixed fully in the spring.

“A lot of times, we’ll have to repair the same pothole several times throughout the winter,” said Lorain Engineer Patrick McGannon. “A cold patch repair can last anywhere from one day to three months,” he said.

So what’s the problem with the cold stuff?

“Cold patch doesn’t melt into the roads in the same way,” said Brian Stacy, an officer for the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Unlike hot asphalt, which starts as a liquid and fills the gaps of the hole before hardening, cold patch stays as independent stones forever.

That means that it can be washed away, moved around or taken for a spin in your car’s axle.
Isn’t there a way to permanently repair potholes between October and April? The short answer is no.

“Hypothetically, there are ways to do it,” said McGannon. “You can get a truck that heats up the asphalt or get the materials for a hot mix and heat it yourself.

But that’s just way too expensive to do.”

Even if it were available, McGannon said that the cold temperatures would probably harden the hot mix before it could settle in the right places.

“This is the best we can do in this time of year,” McGannon said.

And while it’s tough on drivers — and cars — it’s no cakewalk for repair crews, either. Stacy said that January and February are the worst months for the county Road and Bridges Department. They put in thousands of hours and thousands of tons of asphalt just to keep the roads drivable until they can be properly mended in the spring.

How many days are there in March again?
 

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