Minnesota Department of Transportation

511 Travel Info

Potholes

A recipe for potholes

The ingredients of a hard winter provide the perfect recipe for potholes. Snow, ice and rain provide ample moisture and severe cold causes pavement cracking that allows water to seep in, expand and displace paving material. Add sunlight, which creates varying temperatures that keep the damaging freeze/thaw cycle in motion. And finally, warmer spring weather accelerates the freeze/thaw cycle, causing pavement to deteriorate even more quickly.

Formation

Reporting