“We have a few days to get hot patching material,” said WVDOH Assistant Deputy Secretary and District 1 Manager Scott Eplin. “Normally, we couldn’t get it this time of year.”
December, January, and February are typically the months that the most potholes form as water gets into cracks in the road and freezes and thaws. “The last few weeks of the freeze-thaw cycle has been brutal on our pavements,” Eplin said.
But winter is also when potholes are hardest to fix. Asphalt plants shut down in the fall, cutting off access to hot asphalt. The WVDOH and its contractors are forced to use cold asphalt to fill potholes, which provides only a temporary repair.
The availability of hot asphalt in the dead of winter – even if only for a few days – is a game changer for the WVDOH and its contractors.
In Kanawha County, contractors are patching potholes on the Interstate 64 widening project near the Nitro WW I Memorial Bridge, and on Jefferson Road. Both are heavy traffic areas that have been plagued with potholes this winter.
District 1 crews are also patching on WV 85 and WV 3 in Boone County, WV 817 and Eleanor in Putnam County, Crestmont Road in Clay County, Pennsylvania Avenue in St. Albans, the Interstate 77/64 split in Charleston, US 35 near Mason County, Four Mile in Elkview, Blue Creek, Interstate 77 South near Fairplain, Interstate 79 South near Wallback, and WV 62 in Point Pleasant.
Contractors and WVDOH crews are also patching in counties to the West. WVDOH District 2 Engineer Rob Pennington, P.E., said contractors are using hot asphalt to pave a pothole-ridden stretch of Interstate 64 between 29th Street and Barboursville, the James River Road Overpass Bridge on US 52 at I-64 Exit 6, and on Hal Greer Boulevard in Huntington.
Pennington said District 2 road crews are also picking up asphalt to patch potholes around Cabell, Lincoln, Logan, and Mingo counties.
West Virginia Turnpike road crews were also picking up hot asphalt to patch potholes between Mossy and Mahan on the Turnpike.
Contractors and WVDOH road crews can only patch potholes within an hour or so radius from the asphalt plant. If they’re much farther away the asphalt will cool down too much to use.
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