BANGOR, Maine — If you’ve lived through a Maine winter or spring, you no doubt are familiar with tire-destroying, rim-wrecking, shock-busting potholes.
And if you’re familiar with potholes, you’re almost certainly aware of their evil cousin — the temporary fix known as cold patch.
A specialized form of asphalt, it remains soft in cold weather, enabling road crews to temporarily fill potholes with an amalgamation of sticky, tar-like pebbles until a permanent patch can be applied in the spring.
And if you’ve ever driven over a cold patch, you know they have an unfortunate quality of kicking up under the wheels of cars and sticking to passing vehicles.
City Councilor Patricia Blanchette acknowledged the problem in a council meeting this week, saying residents rightfully have “complained and complained and complained about the cold patch kicking up and sticking to their cars.”
Well, that could be a thing of the past for Bangor — or at least a less frequent phenomenon, according to city officials.
Voting unanimously Monday, City Council approved the purchase of an asphalt recycler.
The device, expected to cost $130,000, would reheat old asphalt “for application to potholes in streets and sidewalks, in lieu of cold patch,” according to city records.
In short, it will enable Bangor Public Works to apply permanent pothole patches during the winter months.
Blanchette, who sponsored the order to purchase the device from Central Equipment in Old Town, said she hopes residents will call after they see it in operation to say “good purchase.”
“We’re always happy to hear when you’re unhappy — and we do — but we would like to know when we’ve made the right decision and you’re not wearing cold patch on the bottom of your car,” she said.
Public Works Director Dana Wardwell and Assistant Director Steve Smith explained the issue in interviews this week.
Normally, they said, public works buys asphalt for pothole patching preheated. Workers take it directly to the job site and apply it. But after three or four hours, depending on the temperature, the asphalt hardens and is unusable.
Public works collects that asphalt in a pile at its Bangor campus and eventually trucks it back to the suppliers where it is used to make more asphalt.
During the winter, that method is less practical because the asphalt cools more quickly. Not that it matters anyway, because the local suppliers stop making asphalt in the winter.
The new recycler, due to arrive in weeks, will enable public works to reheat the unused asphalt the city normally returns to suppliers. That will enable workers to apply permanent pothole fixes year-round.
It also will allow public works to use a portion of asphalt reclaimed from roads when they are milled for paving.
According to Wardwell, as a result of the purchase, the city has reduced the department’s asphalt budget by $30,000 in anticipation of long-term savings with the device.
He said recycled asphalt costs about $40 per ton versus $110 per ton for cold patch.
The new device will enable better pothole patching in the winter months, but it will not entirely eliminate the need for cold patching.
According to Smith, winter snow removal tends to occupy much of the department’s resources, meaning there may not always be time to complete a permanent patch, which takes longer than cold patching.
“We don’t like cold patch, but it’s a necessary evil,” he said.
Wardwell said he is hopeful there will be slow times this winter that would enable crews to go out and do quality patching as opposed to emergency patching.
Follow Evan Belanger on Twitter at @evanbelanger.