SPRINGVILLE, N.Y. – Crews are still hard at work using cold patch asphalt to fix the potholes popping up around Western New York.
"We've had a pretty rough winter this year," says Jeffrey Gier.
2 On Your Side met up with Gier at Gernatt Asphalt Products' Springville plant Monday evening. In an average year, his plant makes between 45 and 65-thousand tons of hot-mix.
But, they stop making that in November.
"Usually, we like to see some temps above 50 degrees, and then they have time to work with it. Usually April 1st, 15th, through there we start making hot-mix again," explains Gier.
Right now, it's all about producing cold patch. Gernatt made 410 tons of cold patch on Monday, and it'll easily be gone by the end of the week.
Gier says the key to making sure the cold patch holds up is preparation.
"If there's loose material in the hole, water in the hole, jagged edges, you know, if they took, you take some time and clean things up, it'll hold just as well as hot-mix, but it needs the proper preparation and finishing, and sometimes due to lack of time or a lot of it, they bomb it in and roll it over a couple times, and call it good enough, plow comes through, and right back out again," says Gier.
All that snow removal work, from the plows to the salt, adds to the wear and tear of the roads.
"Everybody likes that bare road, so the more salt they put on, the harder it freezes in just like as, you know, if you're making ice cream. You add salt to the ice, and it gets colder, and that's exactly what we're doing here. When you put salt down on the roads, it makes them colder, and it gives them more expansion, and contraction, and causes more heaving," says Gier.
Gier says his crews plan on making more cold patch next week.