This year, our City of Victoria patch crews have repaired more than 7,000 potholes and counting—but the surest method of keeping potholes off our streets is by taking action before they form.
I often tell people that maintaining our streets is like maintaining your vehicle. If you bought a brand-new car and did zero maintenance on it for a year, it would become un-drivable at some point, probably because of something simple like a flat tire. Similarly, even streets that are in good shape can still require some type of maintenance.
Our City’s capital improvement plan balances reconstruction projects, where we completely overhaul a street that is in bad shape (like North Street—yes, it’s in the plan), and less costly maintenance and repair projects on OK streets, which help to prevent new or worsening pothole problems.
One example of a less costly project is a mill and overlay, where we grind up or “mill” the surface layer of the street and put down new pavement that is less susceptible to potholes. Another example is seal coating, which involves applying asphalt and aggregate followed with an application of Onyx to maintain the street’s current condition and prevent new potholes from forming.
Seal coating is probably one of our most misunderstood types of street projects. People ask us, “Why are you working on a perfectly good road?” The answer is, “To keep it from turning into a bad, pothole-filled road that will require much more expensive repairs.”
With that being said, reconstruction also plays a role in pothole prevention. Many of the older roads in Victoria have issues with potholes because they were not made to withstand the heavy traffic that is common nowadays (we learned this the hard way during the oil boom). Reconstruction gives us an opportunity to strengthen these older roads and make them less vulnerable to wear and tear.
Conducting repairs and maintenance on a wide area of our streets—using the appropriate type of project for each street—is crucial to building a transportation system that is less susceptible to potholes. That is why we are aiming to increase the total miles of street repair projects in Victoria by 50% during fiscal years 2022-2026 compared to the previous five-year window.
By looking at the data, we can already see how this approach is helping to reduce potholes. Streets that used to be frequent sources of complaints are seeing those complaints reduced or eliminated after receiving some type of service.
The area of Pleasant Green Drive near the City limit is just one example; our pothole patch trucks used to make frequent calls to this area, but after a simple reclamation of the base and a seal coat, this is no longer a problem area for us. You may remember that the other side of Pleasant Green Drive was the site of a reconstruction project; we strengthened the subbase in this area to help prevent deterioration amid increased truck traffic.
Although preventative maintenance is important, quickly repairing existing potholes is just as necessary. In 2020 the City added a third pothole patch truck to our fleet, which has been a game-changer for us since it allows us to be more proactive with pothole repairs. Even as we respond to residents’ complaints, we will usually have one or two trucks working in zones repairing any potholes they find. Most of our pothole repairs are a result of this proactive approach.
Our crews generally respond to pothole repair requests within 48 hours. If you see a pothole, don’t just complain about it on Facebook—give us a call at 361-485-3160, file a report using the Victoria Texas 311 app or go to www.victoriatx.gov and click on “Report a Concern.”
To learn which streets are scheduled for repairs or maintenance during the next few years, take a look at our capital improvement plan at www.victoriatx.gov/engineering. The schedule for next fiscal year will be finalized as part of our budget discussions over the summer. Stay tuned.
Ken Gill is the Public Works director and former city engineer for the City of Victoria.