By Renee Worthing 

Register Reporter 

In some parts of the United States, those holes in the middle of the road are called “chuckholes.” In Maine they are called “potholes,” but no matter what they are called, they make drivers swerve and can cause damage to a car’s suspension system if they are hit.

When temperatures drop in the winter, water in the ground below the road freezes and expands, causing the ground to expand and push the pavement up.

As the temperatures rise, the ground thaws and returns to normal level, but the pavement that was pushed up remains raised. This creates a gap between the pavement and the ground below.

When cars drive over this “frost heave,” the road surface cracks, falling into the hollow space. As the cracks develop, they interlock in a pattern called “alligator cracking.” Pieces of the pavement between the cracks are worked loose. Rotating car wheels kick the loose pieces out, resulting in a pothole. As more cars pass over the hole, the edges of the hole are broken down, causing the hole to get larger. If not filled, the hole can become several feet wide.

Richard Johnson, a resident of Country Club Road 1 in south Sanford, recently gathered signatures from his neighbors, to take to the town council. The 145 signatures were given to the Sanford Town Council along with a request to fix their road.

Johnson said the road has “not been good” since he moved there 30 years ago when he built his home there.

“They patch all summer,” he said, but he wants the road torn up.

He said heavy load trucks began using the road when the Shawna Lane development was built at the other end of the road and car accidents on Route 4 often turn Country Club Road 1 into a detour.  

He said the condition of the road is so poor, his grandson broke a spring on his car.

Sanford Public Works Director Charles Andreson said within 24-hours of a written complaint, the public works department fills the potholes with cold patch.

Cold patch, a blacktop compound, is not heated. The cold blacktop is poured into the hole and tamped down with a heavy hand tool.

However, he said using cold patch is “frustrating.”

“You fill the hole and before you know it, it’s all out again,” he said. “It doesn’t stay in place.” 

The cold patch compound the town traditionally uses costs $50 per ton, but recently the town began experimenting with a different patch mix, given to the town by Pike Industries.

  He said the three tons of trial patch mix has worked “reasonably well” and may be in use in the future.

  The new patch mix costs $90 per ton, but Andreson said while it is more expensive up front, it would be more cost effective in the long run if the same potholes didn’t have to be filled repeatedly.

While some Sanford roads are only pocked with a few holes, other roads in town are nearly impassable.

Johnson’s backyard abuts Route 4. He said three surgeries on his lower back make traveling the road in a car painful. Johnson said rather than ride the bumpy, rutted road, he walks through his backyard to Route 4 where his wife picks him up.

  Andreson said when he learned the residents had prepared a petition and submitted it to Town Manager Mark Green, Andreson said “add my name to it.”

“It (the road) is in lousy condition,” Andreson said. “But, there is nothing we can do to make it more serviceable.”

He said the drainage is poor, the asphalt is broken and there are many potholes.

He said the town would like to repave the road next year, but it is not in the capital improvement plan until 2012.

“I sympathize, but there only so much we can do,” Andreson said.

Johnson said he understands the financial position of the town, but hopes the town can find the funds to fix the road before the ruts and potholes cause an accident.