A car prepares to go through a series of potholes on Juliana Street Tuesday afternoon in Parkersburg. (Photo by Gwen Sour)

PARKERSBURG — As temperatures warm up and the snow and ice starts to melt, the area will brace for the appearance of potholes along many area roadways.

With temperatures expected to climb into the 50s, the Mountain State can expect a major thaw, but once the last of the snow melts, it will reveal a fresh new crop of potholes on West Virginia roads, according to a press release from the West Virginia Department of Transportation.

As the area transitions from three consecutive weeks of frigid temperatures, the City of Parkersburg Public Works and Engineering Divisions are preparing for the anticipated proliferation of potholes across the city’s approximately 232 miles of city streets, Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce said in a press release issued Tuesday.

“We are still clearing the roadways of ice, and our primary focus Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week is and will be to get as many storm water drains open for draining to accommodate the water from the melting of accumulated snow and ice,” Joyce said.

Potholes form when water seeps into cracks in the road. The water freezes and expands, making little cracks into bigger cracks, and bigger cracks into potholes. The more freeze-thaw cycles the road goes through, the bigger the chance of creating potholes, according to the WVDOT press release.

Because asphalt plants are shut down for annual maintenance this time of year, many road crews will use a sticky mixture of cold asphalt known as cold patch, WVDOT officials said.

The City of Parkersburg will be deploying up to three work crews daily beginning Friday to patch holes temporarily for the interim until the asphalt plants reopen in the spring and more direct and long-term repairs can be done, Joyce said.

“We have had improved results using products that are different from traditional cold patch; we deploy our personnel with necessary hand tools, propane, and torches to make the material more pliable and the application more effective,” the mayor said.

The city has implemented a plan for major pavement disruptions to be reviewed by the Engineering Division.

“We ask that motorists be on the lookout for city personnel and exercise caution, as many of these potholes are present in the middle of the roadway or driving lanes,” Joyce said.

The city is asking citizens to use either the PKB Connect App (available for free in the Apple or Android App store) to report such road conditions or call the public works dept at 304-424-8559.

Belpre Mayor Susan Abdella said potholes were going to become a concern as temperatures continue to warm up and the snow and ice are melting.

“As soon as some of this gets off the streets, my street foreman has a plan laid out to go out and do some cold patching,” Abdella said.

There are places on Washington Blvd., Popular Street, Main Street and elsewhere that will need some work, the mayor said.

Once the asphalt plants open in May, the city will be able to do long-term repairs.

“Right now, the key is to do cold patching on bad areas,” Abdella said.

Vienna Mayor Chad Emrick said their crews will be going around the city and will be checking all the storm water drains to make sure they are clear so there will be no excess flooding as a result of any potential clogged drains by residual ice and other materials.

“We will start to pay attention to those areas where we will have a lot of the freezing and thawing and will have to do road repairs,” Emrick said.

Their crews will be going through the city and doing cold patch repairs and then come back in the spring and make more permanent repairs when they have access to hot asphalt.

“We keep a spreadsheet where we document all of the problem areas on the roads throughout the city,” Emrick said. “As the weather permits, we start to address those in a list of priority.”

He is advising people to also be on the lookout for busted waterlines as the frozen ground begins to thaw and the ground shifts.

Marietta Mayor Josh Schlicher said potholes are already an issue in some areas.

The ice and snow have been breaking up and falling apart in a number of different areas.

“There are things under the surface, drainage issues, base problems, utility issues and settling,” Schlicher said. “We are going to be putting a cold patch in on some of the worst of them.”

Acme Street is one of the roads that will be patched as the snow and ice melt. The city is planning to rebuild the street next year. Glendale Road and 7th Street will have some patching done as the city is planning to repave those streets this year.

Schlicher said they are putting together a preventative maintenance program for their streets. Every two years, they have a company come in where they travel the 90 miles of city streets and index them according to their condition. New technology, similar to what is used for Google Earth, will allow officials to better track the conditions of local streets so crews can prioritize needed repairs.

In the meantime, the mayor said crews will be working on patching the potholes with the cold mix the best they can.

“We just ask the public to be patient,” Schlicher said.

Ashley Rittenhouse, public information officer for ODOT District 10, said after the past few weeks of freezing conditions that potholes are the next big concern as things start thawing out.

“Unfortunately, this is that time of year when we do see a lot of potholes appearing on the roads,” she said. “This is a result of that freeze/thaw cycle.

“We are going to be out filling potholes on a regular basis. We just ask folks to have patience with us as we are out there addressing them.”

They will have crews out on all the ODOT maintained routes trying to get potholes filled with cold mix.

“Just know that we do have crews out there filling them,” Rittenhouse said. “We are asking people to slow down and move over for our crews when you do see them working so they can get home safe and drivers can make it home safe.”