Mild winter creates fewer potholes

The City of Idaho Falls and Bonneville County said they’ve seen far fewer potholes this spring.

Every spring the Idaho Falls Street Department begins to fill potholes, like most cities and counties; however they’ve been less busy this year.

“It stayed cold the whole first part of the season,” said foreman Mike McCarthy. “There wasn’t as much warming up and cooling off, so we’ve had a lot less potholes than most years.”

While several factors are at work, temperature is a big one.

“The frost goes down in the ground fairly deep, and as that starts coming up it kind of pushes that moisture up and breaks up the street pretty bad,” said McCarthy.

At Oswald Service and Repair, owner Kevin Oswald sees plenty of customers come in with bent rims and wheels out of alignment.

“They’ve hit a pothole, they’re going down the road and the steering wheel will be off center,” said Oswald.

While some say potholes are fewer this spring, Oswald said Winter and early Spring can still do a number on your vehicle. In fact, AAA said potholes will cost drivers $6.4 billion in repairs this year.

“I know that a lot of places in town, us included, will do a free alignment inspection,” said Oswald. “It does not hurt to have an alignment inspection done just for peace of mind.”