Pot holes appear when snow is cleared

The snow is melting outside and that means potholes will be seen all across the Quad Cities.

For public works departments, filling potholes will be on the agenda for the next couple of weeks.

You might see Moline Public Works crews putting cold mix in potholes and sweeping roads to even out the holes.

They’ve had crews working all day today.

A spokesperson with Moline Public Works says he hopes the job will be done in a timely manner.

“It’s been a tough couple of weeks on everyone,” said Graeme Jewell, Moline Street Operations Manager. “They’ve had very good attitudes about it, and they know this is part of the deal in the winter time.” Public Works across the Quad Cities are preparing for another round of late nights. “I do have sympathy for them,” Jewell said. “But, their spirits are good, and they’re plugging along.” The Moline Street Operations Manager explains how crews fill potholes in the Quad Cities. “They sweep out the hole,” Jewell said. “They put in a product that the slang term for it is cold mix. They put it into the hole, and they tamp it down to compact it, to make it last as long as possible.” Moline depends on the public to share potholes not located on main roads. “We do our main routes first,” Jewell said. “Then, it’s a complaint driven process for the residential roads. People are usually pretty good about calling in potholes that are in their neighborhood.”

Rock Island Public Works Director Michael Bartels is also dealing with pot holes in his neighborhood. “We have warmer temperatures with the rain,” Bartels said. “It’s really the woest case scenario for potholes.” Like Moline, Rock Island is focusing on the high traffic zones first. “We’re starting on all of our main routes currently,” Bartels said. “We’ve been focusing on the 11th Street corridor, and 7th Avenue.” Bartels emphasizes that the Quad Cities is in this together. “We’re here in the Midwest so nothing is new,” Bartels said. “We don’t like the fact that we have a lot of potholes, but we’re not alone in this.”

It’s not just the Illinois side that is affected by potholes, either. Davenport Public Works Director Nicole Gleason told Our Quad Cities News, “Davenport crews are actively filling potholes and began this activity several days ago,” Gleason said. “Crews are proactively performing pothole filling on main routes. We encourage residents to use our online tool, Click Fix, to report potholes.” Moline and Rock Island say the time process should be short to fill main potholes. “I would hope within a week or so we would catch up on the big nasty ones that are on our main routes,” Jewell said.

Meanwhile, you can click here to contact Davenport about potholes, click here for Bettendorf, click here for East Moline, click here for Rock Island and click here for Moline.

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