There is enough to fill pot holes. The problem is sending out a team takes time and money. Cities tend to fix roads but not faster than they break down.
The real question is: why are we spending resources creating speed bumps when pot holes accomplish the same thing?
It is not because of a shortage of asphalt that potholes exist. It is a shortage of attention and money to fill said potholes.
It’s not the asphalt that is lacking.
It’s the desire to spend money on the humans required to put the asphalt in the holes that’s lacking.
Although, the other county that my county borders has pretty regular repair crews come out to fill the potholes… But they just fill them with gravel. Not only does it not last more than a week, the fact it’s not sealed at all just causes more damage to the road, to vehicles driving over it, and to nearby structures when all that gravel is thrown and kicked around by shit driving over it.
They should use some sort of clay at least.
Potholes are naturally occuring speed bumps and free.
I’m not a road engineer, but it takes more conditioning of the road around the hole to patch (due to thermal events and traffic speed - especially in the US NE for example). A poorly filled pothole doesn’t remain filled very long if done poorly, but even if done well it may only last until the next winter. This then becomes the financial debate of patch vs replacement of road sections.
And to add to this, you also have to shut down said road for a time to repair the pothole, which could be costly (traffic-wise) in some areas at certain times.
Speaking as a professional paver, this is absolutely the correct answer.
Audhd spotted
There used to be a pothole in front of my house that always came back. It was at a low spot and sent waves of salty runoff into my yard in the winter every time someone drove through it.
During Covid I while I was working from home, I watched as some workers rolled up in a pickup truck, hopped out of the bed with two 5-gallon buckets of cold patch, and just dumped it into the puddle that was the pothole, loosely spread it around with a rake, hopped back in the truck and left. All within like 2 minutes. A few days later. Someone must have come by to actually top it off and tamp it down, but within days if not hours my yard and the sidewalk were full of little black pebble that had been splashed out.
It’s not so much about the asphalt as it is about the humans being paid to put the asphalt down. There are lots of potholes to be fixed and not as many speed bumps that need to be made, so the speed bumps get finished before the potholes do.
Because that’s where the political will is.
Speed bumps save lives, potholes save things to complain about for votes and money at election and budget time.
Asphalt has natural antigravity properties and tends to rise.
Potholes are just inverted speed bumps.
Most people don’t know this, but speed bumps are actually hollow. They use a balloon to make the shape, then pour a thin layer of asphalt over it for aesthetic reasons. This saves money on asphalt, which is popular with city councils, so the asphalt is typically saved for more speed bumps rather than filling potholes.
When pot holes were regularly filed, workers would pour gas on the tar to make sure they could eat and have a job next week.
What?
It was in certain pot hole fillers interest to ensure the pot hole continued to need to be filled so they could continue to fill holes, so despite filling a hole once the gas ensured they’d have to come back again and redo the job and get paid multiple times for the same hole.
Classic time theft/tar theft combo.
