Road Departments Filling Potholes After Snowfall And Road Salt

Upper Cumberland road crews are already receiving several reports of potholes after last week’s snowfall.

Putnam County Road Supervisory Randy Jones said for now, his department can only do temporary patches.

“We use cold mix through the winter time,” Jones said. “That’s all we can get is the cold mix. Then in the spring when the plants open back up and start running, we’ll switch back to hot mix.”

Jones said permanent fixes come with warmer weather but not for temperature reasons. Jones said factories that make the hot mix actually shut down for the winter creating a limited supply.

“When it gets so cold then they can’t work,” Jones said. “They can’t put down asphalt, so they shut their plants down and do maintenance on them. Because of availability, we just can’t get it.”

Fentress County Road Supervisor Joey Reagan said his crews have been patching holes most of Monday. Cold mix also being used due to the same reason.

“We’ve got a pile of it mixed back here, and we just load it on our little ton trucks,” Reagan said. “Two or three man in the truck go out patching.”

Jones said one of the biggest reasons for potholes is road salt. Jones said the material deteriorates the oil in the asphalt and causes weak places to crumble.

“With a bad pothole, we will go and clean out all the lose debris,” Jones said. “Then, we use this cold mix, and we fill the hole up. Most of the time we build it up a little high and take a packer over it and ring it back down close to the natural grade.”

Both county highway departments asks motorists to report any new potholes by calling.