Pothole repairs speeding up, but could still take months to fully fix

The city says it has a new tool in the battle against potholes and it’s expected to speed the repair process up.

City of Winnipeg Manager of Streets Maintenance Michael Cantor says crews are now able to use hot asphalt to fix the craters thanks to the warmer conditions in Winnipeg over the last few days.

“It’s a much better material to patch with,” he said. “We were patching with cold mix which is a temporary fix and obviously with the freeze and thaw and the water on the streets, it didn’t have much chance to hold.

Now that it’s dry and we can actually patch the holes permanently, we’ll be reducing the amount of potholes on city streets.”

READ MORE: Challenging season for Winnipeg pothole repairs

Crews have started a two-week blitz of pothole filling, but Cantor says we’re still a ways away from a complete fix.

“We’re expecting that we’ll be patching for a couple months at a minimum,” Cantor said.

Cantor also says crews have been focused on Kenaston Boulevard the last few days and a southbound lane opened on Tuesday allowing traffic to flow smoother.

Ten crews are working daily between 7 a.m.-11 p.m. along with seven other road patchers.