‘They suck:’ Saskatoon residents frustrated by potholes, grateful to see them dealt with

Saskatoon residents don’t like potholes but are resigned to dealing with them again as the snow starts to melt.

Richard Bender says the potholes are pretty bad every spring, but this year, roads seem especially rough.

“But given the winter, it’s probably to be expected,” he said, though he added the City of Saskatoon did a good job last year dealing with the potholes in a timely manner.

Bender’s sentiments towards potholes are simple and relatable: “They suck.”

He said Eighth Street is one of the worst in the city for driving.

“It’s the busy, busy street,” he said. “You kind of expect them on some of the residential streets because they’re not so heavily trafficked, so that’s maybe not such a big deal.”

Ken Gener lives at the corner of Acadia Drive and Taylor Street. It’s full of potholes that are filled with water thanks to the spring melt. But he says the city has been great.

Gener moved into his home about two years ago. He likes it because it’s very close to work, but it’s a busy corner, which means noise and lots of traffic … leading to “too many potholes.”

“Yesterday, I just phoned the city because there’s a big hole there across from Emmanuel Baptist Church and they did it right away,” Gener said.

He said he got home from work Tuesday morning. By Tuesday afternoon, the hole had been filled.

He’s impressed with the city. Though an asphalt repair can’t be done while the roads are so wet, he was pleasantly surprised to see the problem dealt with so swiftly.

“Actually, they responded really quick,” he said of city crews.

The City of Saskatoon’s website includes a map where residents can report potholes on city streets. The vast majority of the dots on the page are green, signalling the city has dealt with them already in some way.

With the snow melting so quickly, those potholes around Gener’s home are filled with dirty water. That presents another problem for Gener, whose car gets dirty very quickly when it’s parked outside thanks to splashes from traffic.

In the Nutana neighbourhood where Char McGill lives, she says a lot of smaller residential streets are bumpy and uneven.

“Now with the snow melting, they’re even worse,” she said.