Finally, spring thaws enough to allow pothole repairs to begin

Pothole repairs will begin April 28 on Charest.

By Charles Sercombe
Fed up with dodging Hamtramck’s potholes?
The wait is over for the city to begin fixing the hundreds of potholes that have popped up during winter.
Mark Ragsdale, the Director of Public Works, said repairs will begin on Tuesday, April 28, starting on Charest near Holbrook, which has been deemed by the Detroit Free Press as the worst street in the metro area.
The city had been waiting for winter’s frost to go away, which it did officially last week.
Instead of just shoveling in asphalt, which lasts only a few weeks at best, the city will be using a more long-term solution. It’s a method the city last used several years ago until funding ran out.
Ragsdale said the patch material will be sprayed in the potholes and will have a sealant to help keep the asphalt in.
Contrary to what former City Councilmember Cathie Gordon has been saying at city council meetings lately, this method does not harm the environment nor leak into the sewers, said City Manager Katrina Powell.
Gordon has been saying that’s why the city stopped using this method. That’s also not true, Powell said.
“The reason the spray patching was ceased in 2008 was due to funding, not for any other reason,” Powell said in an email. “The city used this contractor to repair the potholes from 2005-2008. There are no more contamination or environmental issues than with the conventional method of paving a street.”
While the city has no shortage of potholes, not all will be treated equally. Ragsdale said an engineering study will be conducted on all streets to determine what type of repairs to make.
That could range from spray patching, to cutting out whole sections of the street to a total repave.
Ragsdale said that although Charest was the focus of media attention, there is a section of Goodson that is far worse. He said about 200 feet of that street will be cut out and repaved.
According to City Manager Powell’s report to the city council, that will cost $80,200.
In other road repair projects, Powell said Hanley St., from Jos. Campau to Gallagher, will be milled and filled at a cost of almost $192,000. Further up on Hanley, from Gallagher to Conant, there will be a complete reconstruction at a cost of $358,000.