More potholes popping up after recent snow, ice

By Harry Loomis

Although the roads are no longer covered in snow and ice, St. Joseph drivers are dealing with another hazard — potholes.

St. Joseph Public Works and Transportation employees have spent the last few days responding to calls about potholes, although their current fix is a temporary one.

“This time of year, the only available material for something like that is a cold patch,” said Jackson Jones, superintendent of streets and infrastructure. “We’ll send a crew out to repair.

“It could be a long-term repair, but out on the main road where there’s truck traffic and stuff going over it is just not going to last long,” he continued. “So on a day like today, you just you just send people kind of out around to check out streets and see if there’s potholes.”

Historically, January through April is when many potholes form due to the changing weather. The longer-lasting changes typically occur during the spring and summer as the temperature increases.

“The minute there’s new asphalt plant open, even in Kansas City, we’re going to drive down there,” Jones said. “We have a couple of our patch trucks that have heaters in them that will keep the material hot, and we’ll send them down there.”

To report a pothole, call the street and infrastructure department at (816) 271-4848. The department will continue to treat potholes when they see them.

“There’s going to be crews moving around town fixing the calls that we had called in,” Jones said. “As they’re moving across town, if they identify when they’re going to get that fixed and if we see a substantial problem, then we are going to stop and fix it.”