The potholes will be repaired, but there will be no large-scale road repairs in Mykolaiv for at least another month

The condition of the road on Central Avenue in Mykolaiv after the snow melted. Photo: NikVesti

There will be no large-scale pothole repairs on the roads of Mykolaiv for about another month due to unstable weather conditions and the wetness of the road base.

This was announced by Vitalii Shevchenko, director of the municipal enterprise ELU Avtodorig, in a comment to NikVesti.

The official recalled that this winter had a lot of frosts and thaws, which led to the destruction of the asphalt pavement. Today, the company only performs emergency spot repairs using special equipment — the so-called «repairer».

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«This is a machine that can perform emergency pothole repairs even at sub-zero temperatures. This thing makes a small amount of asphalt from old asphalt with the addition of bitumen. The result is essentially new asphalt at a very high temperature, which evaporates water from the pothole. But it only does one and a half tonnes per shift, which means that in a working day, it is only possible to cover about 15m² of potholes. That is very little. It is enough to cover a couple of blocks, no more. And it is only for emergency repairs, like putting a temporary filling in a tooth. It is just a temporary patch,» he explained.

It is technically impossible to carry out a full repair by laying new asphalt at this time.

«New asphalt can only be laid when the base is dry. Right now, it's wet — the asphalt will just fall off. Last week, it was dry on the weekend. We tried to work, but it's still too early. These are all emergency, temporary solutions,» said Vitalii Shevchenko.

Currently, municipal workers are mostly filling the potholes with asphalt chips and gravel as a temporary measure to reduce the risks to traffic.

«We understand that it's impossible right now, but in order to at least somewhat reduce the potholes for city residents and prevent them from damaging their wheels, we are filling them with crumbs. And we see a lot of hate on the internet, in the comments. If you do something, it's bad; if you don't do anything, it's also bad,» added the director of the company.

The condition of the road on Central Avenue in Mykolaiv after the snow melted. Photo: NikVesti

Given the weather conditions, there will be no large-scale repairs of roads with damaged asphalt in Mykolaiv for another month.

«Until the weather becomes consistently warm, nothing will change globally. Realistically, there will definitely be no large-scale pothole repairs for about another month. March is still cold,» Vitalii Shevchenko clarified.

Funding is a separate issue. According to the official, in December, the municipal enterprise submitted estimates for standard pothole repairs and maintenance of the entire road network of the city in the amount of about 90 million hryvnias, but only 12 million were allocated.

«We were short about 80 million hryvnias. Discussions are currently underway to find additional funding, because everyone can see that the need has only increased after such a cold winter,» he said.

It should be noted that after this winter, deep potholes appeared on Ukrainian roads. The main reasons for this are the effects of freeze-thaw cycles and de-icing reagents that were poured onto the asphalt pavement.

For example, during the recent ice storm, employees of the municipal enterprise «Mykolaiv Parks» reported that they used 22,700 kilograms of de-icing mixture to treat sidewalks and pedestrian areas.