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Overcast Potholes here, there and everywhere
Road repairs under way in Valley Stream after tough winter
It’s been a rough winter for roads in Valley Stream and all across the region, and highway crews are being kept busy filling in potholes.
Valley Stream Highway Supervisor Tim Leahy said he estimates that there are thousands of potholes — big and small — along the village’s 90 miles of roadway. With the snow now basically gone, crews have been able to hit the streets and start making repairs.
Leahy said that every day, one crew of two or three men hits the north side of the village, and another crew takes care of the south side. Many of the repairs are made following complaints from residents. “If we get a call, we respond immediately,” he said.
Additionally, Leahy said he makes notes of any potholes he sees while driving around the village and forwards that on to his crews.
Most potholes are fixed with a procedure called cold patch. Crews will clean out all the lose asphalt and rocks in the hole, put in fresh asphalt and pat it down. With those potholes, one crew can get to 30 or 40 a day. Hot patches are needed for worse spots, Leahy explained. A rectangular section of road will be cut out and repaved.
Some areas require even more work. Leahy cited a pothole a the end of Birchwood Drive where it meets Hendrickson Avenue. The hole was about a foot-and-a-half deep and about four feet in diameter. The damage there was particularly bad because it is along the path to a storm drain, where water would pass through and freeze. After filling in the hole, crews will return in the spring and repave the entire corner.
Several streets in the village are also slated to be fixed as part of the village’s annual road improvement program. Potholes on those streets, Leahy said, will receive temporary fixes before work starts up in the spring.
Leahy said the “birth” of many potholes are at the edges of utility patches — a spot where a utility company had opened the road for a repair, then patched it back up. Any place a seam is created in the asphalt, the road become more vulnerable to potholes.
Potholes are created, Leahy said, due to the freezing and thawing of water. After three heavy snowstorms this winter — beginning with the December blizzard — and several other small storms, the roads have taken a beating.
