Montreal announces pothole repair blitz

The City of Montreal announced Monday it is dispatching 150 employees to tackle the escalating pothole problem, and that once snow removal operations are complete the number of workers dedicated to fixing the craters will double.

Richard Deschamps, who is responsible for infrastructure at the city, said Montreal repairs between 35,000 and 50,000 potholes every year and more than 4,600 tonnes of asphalt are needed for the operation.

"The problem that we've had is that we didn't invest for 30 years [in] our roads and infrastructure and we pay the price today," he said.

"This is what we have to face as a community."

This is the city's fourth pothole repair operation this season. Work crews had to stop last week because of heavy snow storms.

Deschamps admits some potholes repaired earlier this year are already opening up and swallowing car tires again.

"Sometimes we have to intervene another time. It's not because the city didn't learn anything, it's because the state and the condition in which we do our repairs will ask for another intervention," said Deschamps.

The Montreal Transit Corporation was forced to reroute a bus in Montreal's St. Henri district because of the excessively high number of potholes.

"It's a questions of safety and a matter of health," said the Corporation's Marianne Rouette.

"If you drive and go in the same pothole about four times a day, for the driver it can give him backaches."

It costs the city an average of $20 to fix a pothole.

In 2011 the city will invest $2.5 million for these repairs on top of what the various boroughs are spending to fix the problem.