Gross50

Don't want to sound petty but now that the snow/ice is melting I am begining to see potholes all over the roads.

What's up with the roads? I didnt know too much snow/ice is bad for the roads. Or is it the gritters and the salt?

Does this happen in other states on its only in the midwest?

JulianB

They are but dimples compared with the highways around here.

FlyergirlUK

It's hard to find the road for the potholes around here!

It's the weather - heat and ice/snow cause the tarmac, (or whatever passes for it here) to expand and contract making the roads a complete mess!

I've never come across so many potholes before.

CaliforniaBride

It's not the potholes we have to deal with here, it's the cracks from the tremors.

edwords

When I lived in New York we called them "tank traps." Had one take the wheel off my car.

JeanDupont

That one was really big enough to avoid - have you considered getting your eyes tested?

Only time I had ever had a wheel taken off my car it was some local punk. And he got all 4.

Franklin

Now - that's a real pot hole! By gum! :scared:

I suppose it was caused by flowing water - not by freeze/thaw action(s).

Ray

What about just a plain old Florida sinkhole

JeanDupont

We were recently looking at homes in Fl and saw a sinkhole very similar to this photo - and were informed that many of them are from where builders have bulldozed a collection of stumps etc into the ground before the homes were built - stumps then rot over 10 years or more and ground subsides - others of course are true geographic anomalies.

elfman

Personally I think the roads of New York/New Jersey are in shit order all year round, never mind just after winter. I think it boils down to lack of investment pure and simple.

Taffyles

They blame too much sun here for all the potholes- when we lived in PA they blamed the winters...whatever.

NC Penguin

Um, have you been in the US long? I think the roads in the US are notorious for developing potholes during severe weather, be it in the winter or in the summer.

On one trip to New York in June 97, I remember being slightly surprised that a section of road in midtown Manhattan had melted due to the heat. The tarmac had softened up and had caused the road surface to sink. However, despite being only the last week of June the temperature was over 100F in the daytime.

Now I live in Durham, NC and whenever there is heavy rain like last week (2" in a 6-8 hour period), the day afterwards, there's big and deep potholes popping up like daisies on many, many roads...

Manc

I blame that the contractors / local councils /cities don't know how to build roads that will last any longer then 3 years tops.

They don't grade properly under the asphalt and the asphalt they do use isn't as thick as it should be.

The autobahn surface in Germany is over twice as thick as the typical interstate road surface.

0.72 deaths per 100 million miles driven on German Autobahns with unlimited speeds (but a lot more rigorous lane discipline)

0.94 deaths per 100 million miles driven on US interstates.

draw your own conclusions.

source - Modern Marvels, History Channel programme from last week.