As the City’s street sweeping program is finishing up, with the last neighbourhoods to be swept up this week, this city will now be turning to look at road maintenance, specifically potholes. According to Mike Avramenko, the Roads team lead for the city of Airdrie, even though blasts of historic snowfalls and cool temperatures held on till late April, this year isn’t proving to be much different from previous years.  

“We do get a few phone calls coming from the public just on some of our arterial roads, such as Yankee [Valley Boulevard] or Veterans [Boulevard],” he said.  

Avremenko said that potholes are assessed based on complaints from residents and anything on arterial roads inside of a cross-walk is dealt with. 

“If our asphalt crew hasn't started, we'll put in a temporary repair and if there's anything in the wheel path, we'll try to address that fairly quick. We've got quite an extensive list [this year],” Avramenko said. “These lists are usually broken down into four quadrants of the city, starting off with arterioles.” 

As of right now, there are 40-some items on that list of repairs.  

“That list is pretty extensive throughout the summer and it grows as coordinators are out and about after spring clean-up. You may see just a random crew doing a pothole here or there or you may see, in the summer months, an entire street.” 

Avramenko said that the reason the city tries to address potholes within crosswalks first and foremost is that those who utilize wheelchairs or are walking or even skateboarding may be at greater risk of getting injured or ‘falling into a pothole, more so than a car. 

However, Airdronians should count themselves lucky. Those living in Archbald, Pennsylvania claim that that area has the largest pothole. The glacial pothole, known as the Big Ice Age hole is 42 feet wide and located right next to a highway. 

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