Drive in any direction in Sioux Falls and you'll notice them: pothole patching crews, trucks, and steel rollers.
And Tuesday, city crews got a little help from the Mayor.
“In three weeks, you will really definitely see a difference in potholes,” Sioux Falls Mayor Dave Munson said.
Officials are launching a major repair effort. They've split city into three sections and will have one complete crew in each area. These guys are packing in a hot mix of recycled asphalt. The pothole patcher truck is using a temporary mix of oil and rock.
One crew will also be out overnight focusing on heavily traveled roads. Street Maintenance officials say the work can be tedious but it's greatly needed. “It's something that we can't go out and fix in a day. We're working on it and tacking oil, get as much as quickly as we can,” Street Maintenance Supervisor Lynn Harrington said.
While Mother Nature may be letting up, conditions still are not ideal. That's why they're not able to tack oil before the hot mix, and that means some of these potholes may re-open.
“Some of it's just temporary patch to get something on it. Some of the holes, the deeper ones, will probably stay fairly well but the shallower ones probably will not,” Harrington said.
So drivers still need to be patient with both the crews and Mother Nature.
"Temperatures seem to be warming up a little bit and looking at some of the long range forecast, let's hope that the moisture holds off a little while the temperatures stay and we try and get some of these fixed,” Harrington said.
Officials say even though there are hundreds of potholes in the city, there's no shortage of mix to fill them. The hot mix is made from recycled asphalt left over from this year and last year.
