Tis the Season – Pothole season that is

Another casualty of this winter is the Roads. There are a TON of massive potholes on the roads in this area. Some of these potholes are bigger and deeper than some of the lakes I fish There is going to be lots of tire and wheel damage on autos for sure. With the low profile tires on a lot of auto’s these days they can not handle much of a impact without damage. I saw something on the news recently that says you can collect from the state and some cities for damage from potholes. The funny thing was the 1st person to have damage to report the location can not collect. If after a period of time ( I think it was 30 days ) anyone else gets damage from that same pothole they can file a claim for the damage. Mndot or the city has to be given time to fix the pothole before a claim can be made. Yesterday was the 1st time this year that I saw a crew out at least trying to fill in some of the damage. If the state is not going to return all the surplus tax money to us, they could at least use it to fix some of these roads.

Hwy 10 in St Cloud is absolutely terrible. Lots of bent rims and blown out tires recently. The road to my work is so dang bad. There is a lot of semi traffic and it is just all busted up.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Hwy 10 in St Cloud is absolutely terrible.

It sure is. I drove through there about 2 weeks ago and its obvious where the newer concrete section ends, and the older asphalt section begins. They even have a sign up that says “rough road” LOL. Right as you go past Hwy 23 it looks like a field of land mines went off. No amount of patching is going to fix that section. They need to completely re-do it.

Crews have been out filling some of them with a “cold patch” but its not very durable. I just read today that a private company in St Paul opened their plant early to start making “hot patch” which generally holds up better. Normally the plant doesn’t start up until April but there is such a demand for this hot patch that they had to.

Obviously the amount of moisture this winter combined with the routine freeze and thaw cycle this time of year is just making it worse.

gimruis wrote:

Obviously the amount of moisture this winter combined with the routine freeze and thaw cycle this time of year is just making it worse.

Yeah this time of year really sucks when it freezes at night and then melts during the day. My local bar has a lot of flooding issues because they have no road ditch and the snow melt drains toward the building. It was almost coming in the front door last night. THe county needs to do something about this as it shouldnt fall on the owners to fix this problem when there is no road ditch and nowhere for the water to go.

^My favorite part is when county or state highway funding is used to erect signs that say “Bump” or “Rough Road.”

Imagine if they used the money from those signs and the labor to install them to actually fix the road?

buckybadger wrote:

^My favorite part is when county or state highway funding is used to erect signs that say “Bump” or “Rough Road.”

Imagine if they used the money from those signs and the labor to install them to actually fix the road?

Classic!

Obviously the amount of moisture this winter combined with the routine freeze and thaw cycle this time of year is just making it worse.
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Same issue as WI. Eliminate the majority of salt and build the dam roads so there are sealed and you’ll eliminate the majority of pot holes. Low ball bidding & road building with no accountability leaves a lot to be desired in quality. DOT does BS inspections on the work. Then sling salt and melt the crap to seep in the cracks/between layers and get your enormous freeze pops.

This year seems a LOT worse than recent years – lots of moisture and some early freezing thawing. And yeah, road chemicals don’t help – and there’s been more of that used this year.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Hwy 10 in St Cloud is absolutely terrible. Lots of bent rims and blown out tires recently. The road to my work is so dang bad. There is a lot of semi traffic and it is just all busted up.

Yep that section is really bad. I have drove over it many times in the last few weeks. I keep thinking this must be about how the roads are in the Ukraine right now after a ton of bombings and war. Then I tell myself, no theirs is probably not even this bad

Potholes are just another benefit of electric cars. Heavier vehicles wearing out the roads faster.

Mike W wrote:

Potholes are just another benefit of electric cars. Heavier vehicles wearing out the roads faster.

Locally I don’t see too many electric cars and the roads still are crap. Their added weight definitely won’t fix anything though.

The ever increasing size of ag equipment is rough on our local rural roads. The engineering of the roads hasn’t changed that much in the past 30 years. The size of equipment and what the typical landowner has…is a completely different story though.

You guys nailed it. I can only add that 94 from Hudson to the twin cities is getting scary in the right two lanes. At those speeds its easier to damage your vehicle.

suzuki wrote:

You guys nailed it. I can only add that 94 from Hudson to the twin cities is getting scary in the right two lanes. At those speeds its easier to damage your vehicle.

X2 Its even worse right before the 494/694 interchange. Its like your bouncing up and down right before you hit 494