Bumps in the road
The Shoshone County Community pools project is off to a fantastic start, breaking ground at over 100 different locations from Cataldo to the Montana state line.
Hold on, those are potholes.
Getting wider and adding to their already large numbers, the Shoshone County Public Works Department (SCPWD) has been fighting a uphill battle against the many potholes that continue to pop-up all over the area following this year’s erratic weather patterns.
Shoshone County Public Works Director Forrest Greenfield stressed that his department has never been this busy with potholes.
“This is the worst we’ve ever had it,” Greenfield said. “It’s a time consuming process trying to keep up with them.”
The cause of all these potholes is due to the rapidly fluctuating temperatures combined with a large amount of moisture.
Greenfield explained that it starts with small amounts of water pooling up in cracks or holes in the road on a warm day, then when the temperatures dip, the water freezes and expands causing the asphalt to break.
Combine this with constant abuse from vehicles driving over them and you have the conditions for a ever-growing pothole.
SCPWD has issued load limits on tractor trailers in an effort to reduce heavy damage to the road and the trucks.
Greenfield understands that these potholes can be especially frustrating to locals who must drive over them on a daily basis, but he assures the community that the Department is doing everything it can to fill them and still attend to its other duties.
“Our first priority is to plow the (school) bus routes, then we fill the biggest ones first.”
SCPWD fills the holes with a cold patch asphalt mixture that works well if left alone, but cold temperatures make the repair process difficult.
The bags of cold patch are sometimes frozen themselves when needed and require thawing out before they can be used.
Even if the repair is made, there is no telling if it will stick.
If moisture makes its way into a crack and freezes, the process can repeat all over again.
Although they face a difficult challenge, Greenfield and SCPWD vows to keep up the good fight.
“We will continue to keep filling them,” Greenfield said.
Shoshone County is broken into four road districts, each with their own respective road supervisors.
The districts and their supervisors are as follows:
• District 1 (Murray)- Don Erickson 208-682-3957
• District 2 (Smelterville)- Shane Sciuchetti 208-786-9471
• District 3 (Osburn)- Arne Krulitz 208-752-8335
• District 4 (Marble Creek/ Avery)- Richard Rauch 208-245-6721.