By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


While spring hasn’t sprung, pothole season definitely has across Livingston County.

Potholes have been popping up all over with recent storms and repeated freeze and thaw cycles and motorists are being encouraged to report them to the Michigan Department of Transportation. If motorists do encounter any on state roads, they’re encouraged to call MDOT’s Report a Pothole hotline at 888-296-4546 and crews will be sent out to fix them.

State roads are those that begin with an “M”, “I”, or “US” designation such as US-23, I-96, I-75 or M-28. That would also apply to Grand River or M-53 in some cases, depending on where someone is at.

MDOT’s Communications Representative for the University Region Aaron Jenkins tells WHMI they are seeing a few more potholes than last year this early on in the cycle but it doesn’t come as a surprise with recent weather. He says potholes are created when snow and ice melt as part of Michigan's seasonal freeze-thaw cycles. Moisture seeps into the pavement, freezes, expands and thaws, creating a gap in the pavement. Then as vehicles drive over the gap, the pavement weakens leading to a pothole.

Any information that is reported is forwarded to MDOT’s regional Transportation Service Centers, which send people out from garages, and Jenkins says they are usually pretty quick about fixing them.

Jenkins said many people don’t realize that calling that number will get crews out there pretty quick so if people see trouble areas, they should call. He added they drive on the same roads and don’t want people, family or friends to have to deal with potholes.

Jenkins noted MDOT will be doing a lot of projects this year so there will be a lot of new roads coming that hopefully will eliminate the need to fix so many potholes. He said that work is attributed to Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Rebuilding Michigan program in which $3.5 (B) billion in bonds are being issued to take care of a lot of road problems from the past. Jenkins further asked that motorists be careful when driving around construction zones because they’ll actually be starting up a lot of projects in the next few weeks.