Pothole patrols hit the streets

’Tis the season to fill those cavernous cracks and huge holes in the city’s streets, says Travis Woloshen, the City of Brandon’s maintenance manager with public works. Read this article for free: Already have an account? As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed. Now, more than ever, we need your support.

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’Tis the season to fill those cavernous cracks and huge holes in the city’s streets, says Travis Woloshen, the City of Brandon’s maintenance manager with public works. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? ’Tis the season to fill those cavernous cracks and huge holes in the city’s streets, says Travis Woloshen, the City of Brandon’s maintenance manager with public works. “On any given day, we’re running one to three pothole crews.

Today (Wednesday) is one of the days, with one crew out,” Woloshen told the Sun from the 1400 block of Ninth Street. “And when we are working three crews,” Woloshen added, “we section off the city and canvass the areas, just to make sure that we’re getting to a spot before it becomes a problem. So, just trying to stay on top of everything,” Woloshen said.

Workers with the City of Brandon’s Streets and Roads department fill potholes in the 1400 block of Ninth Street on Wednesday afternoon. (Submitted) The city is in much better shape when compared to last year, he added, as there are not as many holes to fill because “so far, we haven’t had a spring dump,” like there was in 2024. “We’ve had less potholes forming,” Woloshen said.

“I think a lot of that has to do to a slower melt, and we also hauled a lot more snow than we did last year when the snow created all that runoff, which contributed to the additional potholes.” Pothole crews have been out since about the last week of March. Once they get to the site of a potential fill, they clean the cavity by sweeping it out or clear the debris with a leaf blower.

These days the holes are being filled with what’s called a winter mix, which is a blend of oil and gravel and is meant to be temporary because it is pliable and doesn’t harden like asphalt. Once the weather warms up in mid-May, Woloshen said, crews will start to use the hot mix, supplied by Zenith Paving’s asphalt plant. “The hot mix asphalt comes out of the plant at 350 F, and as it cools, that’s when it hardens.

So, once we get the hot mix, we’ll revisit the areas that have the temporary winter mix and give them a permanent fix.” Spring and summer pothole patrols are conducted much like the way crews attack snow removal in the winter months, when they prioritize the main arterial and collector roads and then move to residential streets on a case-by-case basis. “We know about the trouble areas that we’d like to address, so we do focus on priority arterial collectors, but we also have complaints that come in that are quite valid and need to be looked at, in a priority manner,” Woloshen said.

Brandonites can fill out a report-a-pothole form on the City of Brandon’s website, which will eventually end up in front the road crews as a work order. “I would say that’s where a majority of our requests come through,” Woloshen said. “The report gets transferred into our city works program, which populates a work order for our streets and roads department.

“They have a tablet and can see where they’re coming up and close them off as they’ve fill them.” Potholes can be reported to the City of Brandon’s 24-hour Pothole Hotline at 204-729-2200 or by heading to the website www.brandon.

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