Pothole repair in Edmonton, cut square and compacted
A pothole is the visible end of a process that started underground. Filling the hole without dealing with the void beneath it is why so many of them come back in the same place the following spring.
It starts with a crack nobody filled. Water runs down it into the granular layer, and over a winter the freeze and thaw cycle lifts and drops that material until a cavity opens below the asphalt. The surface spans the gap for a while, then a wheel finds it.
So by the time you can see a hole, the damage underneath is wider than the opening. That is why a repair is cut back past the visible edge: the asphalt immediately around a pothole is already unsupported even though it still looks solid.
The area around the opening is checked for asphalt that moves or sounds hollow, because the unsupported zone is always wider than the hole you can see.
Cut back to square edges
Ragged edges are cut to straight vertical faces. A patch poured against a crumbling rim has nothing to bond to and fails around its perimeter first.
Replace what washed out
Loose and saturated material is removed and fresh granular compacted in, which is the step that decides whether the repair sinks again.
Fill, compact and seal the rim
Hot mix is placed slightly proud and compacted down level with the surrounding surface, then the perimeter joint is sealed against water.
Why cold mix fails
Why cold mix is not your Edmonton pothole repair
Cold patch material is designed to be shovelled into a hole and driven on immediately. It stays workable because it never properly sets, which is exactly why traffic pushes it out again over a few weeks of rain and heat.
It also does nothing about the cavity. The bag fills the visible opening and leaves the void below untouched, so the new material simply migrates into the space the old asphalt was spanning. That is how a hole becomes a dip, and why a bag of material is not a patch.
There is one honest use for it: a temporary fix in the middle of winter when hot mix is not available and a hole is a hazard. We will say when that is the situation, and quote the proper repair for spring. If several are grouped together, the surface itself is the conversation.
Because the cavity under it was never filled. A patch resting over a void has nothing supporting it, so traffic drives it down into the space and the hole reopens.
A temporary fill, yes, where a hole is a hazard. A proper repair needs hot mix and a dry surface, so the permanent version is usually booked for spring and quoted then.
A single pothole is typically under an hour including the cut and the compaction. A group of them across a lot is quoted together because the setup is the same visit.
Once the hot mix has been compacted and has cooled, yes. That is usually within an hour, which is one of the practical advantages over a cold patch that never fully sets.
Usually, because mobilising a crew is a fixed cost. The risk is that an open hole keeps taking water, so waiting a season often means repairing a larger area.
Yes, for a while. New asphalt is darker than weathered asphalt and stays that way for months. A sealcoat across the whole surface afterwards is what evens the colour.
Get Edmonton potholes repaired before the next freeze
We will look at whether the holes are isolated or whether the section underneath has gone, and quote the repair that matches rather than the one that is quickest.
