GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Snow has been few and far between so far this winter. But even without it in the roadways, West Michigan still been impacted, just in a different way.
Jerry Byrne has seen plenty of winters working with the Kent County Road Commission, but this one has been different.
"In my time, 40 plus years at the county, this is probably the longest stretch that we really haven't seen a lot of winter yet," says Byrne.
Typically, his crews jobs are impacted by heavy snow. This year, though, they're impacted by the lack of it.
"We haven't had the snowfall, we haven't had a lot of rain," says Byrne. "Total moisture is down by half for November, December. So the ground isn't saturated."
And he says that means potholes aren't forming as much as usual.
"We get the snow, we put salt on it to melt it, it goes into cracks and refreezes, spreads that crack a little bigger over and over and over again," says Byrne. "That forms that pothole."
Of course, Byrne says this could all change with any snow that we do end up getting this year.
Even though Kent County says it hasn't had to respond to as many of those emergency pothole calls as it normally does this time of year, you are going to see more crews alongside the road than you usually would in January.
"We're able to do some more of those permanent type repairs that we normally can't do," says Byrne.
Because of that, he asks that you keep an eye on the roads just like you would in the summer when work crews are in full force.
"You need to be courteous, you need to follow the traffic control, you need to slow down when you're by workers," says Byrne. "You're not used to seeing construction year round and right there, you are seeing these crews. They need your protection."
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