New plans for potholes

There has to be a better way. And La Crosse’s Street Department now thinks there is. City Hall has a new plan for battling our prolific potholes. It has been a struggle to repair our roads, especially this time of year, when freezing and thawing causes the potholes to deepen. Typically, crews dump an oil patch down to fill the potholes, but as we’ve seen, that fix rarely lasts long. They may have to work to fill the same potholes several times a year, as water gets underneath the patch and cause it to bubble to the surface. Typically crews have just dumped a few shovels full of the patch mixture into the hole, without even packing it down. So cars run over it, and kick it up, splattering their freshly washed car with that sticky black mixture. Sometimes, a patch lasts little more than a week depending on weather conditions. But now, they have a new plan. And it seems to be working. Instead of using an oil patch, crews are using recycled asphalt they tore up last year. The asphalt is then melted down and used to fill potholes. So far, it seems to be working. The new patch system seems to be holding better than past efforts. Perhaps they have finally invented a better mousetrap. Because as long as Madison continues to drag its feet on rebuilding our roads, our crews are going to be busy filling potholes. Perhaps they have finally found a system that is worth the time and investment.