Drivers skirt around a pothole on Hoskin Ave. on Jan. 13 2014. The freeze/ thaw cycle that Toronto has been going through has created havoc for drivers as potholes formed all over the city.Fred Lum
The City of Toronto has begun a blitz to patch up hundreds of pot holes caused by the recent fluctuations in winter temperatures.
The recent thaw has given the city a perfect window to send out 42 crews in hopes of fixing approximately 1,200 pot holes by the end of the day – one road crew can fix 25-50 potholes in a day.
"When you have a cold spell like what happened last week, and then you have a thaw, we anticipate that will cause a tremendous number of pot holes," says Trevor Tenn, a manager of road operations for the city. "Today has been the first opportunity we've had to deal with a lot of them."
Tenn says that while the crews patrolling the city have some idea of which areas are prone to pot holes, such as Markham Road and Kingston Road in Scarborough, they prefer to rely on tips from locals.
Torontonians are asked to report pot holes by calling 311, or by following this link.
After a winter of frigid weather conditions including an ice storm, temperatures in the city have hit above 0 C for three consecutive days. Environment Canada predicts the temperature to fall to slowly cool over the next few days, hitting –5 C by Thursday.
The crews, who represent the majority of the pot hole repair workers the city has available, will continue to be active throughout the week if weather conditions remain warm enough.
So far this winter, about 4,000 pot holes have already been fixed, a drastic increase compared to approximately 1,500 at the same time last year.
The city has also asked drivers to be cautious of all the extra road workers that will be on the streets fixing pot holes during this time.