Potholes started to be inspected and filled in around Aberdeen

07 March 2018

Aberdeen City Council staff yesterday started to fill potholes on the main roads around the city after the road surface temperatures rose above 0C.

Roads teams were out on the city’s highways as soon as the snowfalls had stopped on Monday to start the work to inspect the potholes which had appeared since the sub-zero temperatures last week.

The pothole repair programme generally starts in March each year, as there are always large numbers of potholes which appear over the winter months, generally from October to March.

Potholes do not need snowy weather to appear, just road surface temperatures below 0C as they form when water gets into cracks, expands as it freezes, splits the tarmac open, and creates the potholes.

Roads staff need to wait until there is no frost and the road temperatures are above 0C before they can start filling the potholes in.

Aberdeen City Council transport spokesman Councillor Ross Grant said: “We know there are a large number of potholes appearing just now, as there always is across the country at this time of year.

“Our staff started inspecting the main roads – the priority 1 routes - on Monday and again yesterday, with roads teams already filling in potholes that exceed the road safety criteria.

“We’d ask people to please bear with us as we’ll be concentrating inspecting and repairing potholes on the main roads first before going out to other areas. We’d ask people to help by reporting a pothole to us at https://integration.aberdeencity.gov.uk/service/road_defect.”