KALISPELL - The City of Kalispell relies heavily on citizens reporting potholes to get them temporarily fixed during the spring break up period.
The city will locate and fix potholes while they are out doing their daily activities, but City Manager Doug Russell says crews don’t regularly visit all parts of the city.
“We just really do encourage people to call those in when they come across some. You know, there may be instances that we're just not in that specific area in our daily activities. So it's just an important piece of information we get back from the community." - Kalispell City Manager Doug Russell
Potholes are created by the expansion of water under pavement during the freeze and thaw period that we have in Montana, especially in the spring. Temporary fixes are applied to keep the roads from deteriorating until the asphalt plants open in the summer and a permanent fix can be applied.
“It's a vital information source to be able to get that information from the public so we can go out and do a temporary fix because the sooner we can get that the more of the surface that we can save and prevent those issues from worsening before we get permanent fixes in the summer,” said Russell.
According to the Public Works Department, The City of Kalispell is starting a larger road construction project and will be placing pothole repair on hold, for now.
People can contact the City of Kalispell Public Works Department at 406-758-7720 to report pothole problems.
