Talk:Pothole

Split article
I think this should be split into different articles and a disambiguation page setup up, since pothole may refer to three different things: A hole in asphalt, a hole in bedrock formed in a riverbed through erosion, and a deep vertical cave. Any thoughts? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ennisj (talk • contribs) 16:34, 14 May 2007 (UTC)


 * This comment was made 3 years ago and I'm amazed no one has followed it up. I would completely agree, the "other uses" section is pointless in an article when a disambiguation page could be used. I'm going to be bold and start shifting things... Fattonyni (talk) 12:34, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

Pothole
Page suggests that a pothole is an unusual form of cave. The difference is more to do with usuage. Pothole is commonly used in the Yorkshire Dales to describe a pre-dominatly vertical cave

A day the life reference
Despite finding it very amusing the "As of 1967, there were 4,000 potholes in Blackburn, Lancashire. Although they were rather small, added together they could fill the Albert Hall." (a day the life Beatles reference) it is not true. See http://www.applecorp.com/aditl/origins.htm for more. I'm going to remove it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.13.49.186 (talk) 15:47, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Fidel Castro
Contrary to popular belief, Fidel Castro did not refuse to vote for Giuliani because of the potholes in NYC in 1998. So this has been removed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.54.8.102 (talk) 13:32, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Repair
This page says nothing about fixing them. It could include estimated cost to fix one, seams like its between 5-60$US (UNCONFIRMED 2 mins on google is my source, 5$ was an extraneous value, due to massive pothole problems in a small area. real # closer to between 20-60$US)

Also the methods of repair. This was very easy to find and not on the Wikipedia page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.210.16.21 (talk) 20:35, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

Im a practicing civil engineer and will add the proper method —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.63.179.177 (talk) 00:45, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

I added it to the page, but someone took issue to it. So whatever, I dont care enough to do an edit war —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.4.245.167 (talk) 06:42, 5 April 2010 (UTC)


 * The The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Cold Regions Research & Engineering Laboratory originally published "Pothole Primer: A Public Administrator's Guide to Understanding and Managing the Pothole Problem" (Special Report 81-21) in September 1981 explains that pothles are simply the result of water-saturated soil, plus traffic. It also has a variety of repair techniques. --User:HopsonRoad 23:50, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

Gravel roads
Potholes occur on gravel roads. I'm wondering though about the long ridges that sometimes form. They're not potholes, what are they called? Pendragon39 (talk) 22:29, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * If they're transverse, you're probably referring to "washboarding," a phenomenon that reflects the resonant interaction between the road and vehicle suspensions. If they're longitudinal, you're probably referring to rutting, which is caused by the soil deforming in the wheelpath to cause a depression with a ridge on either side of the wheelpath. --User:HopsonRoad 21:51, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Better basic description needed
This article needs subject-matter expert references. The descriptions of pothole formation in pavements are inadequate and unsourced. --User:HopsonRoad 23:48, 24 April 2010 (UTC)
 * In February, 2014 I did a major overhaul of this article to rationalize its structure and provide state-of-the-art authoritative sources. User:HopsonRoad 20:32, 28 May 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm awaiting suggestions from the editor, who tagged the article, on the improvements that he/she has in mind. If I hear nothing actionable by 1 June, I plan to remove the tags. User:HopsonRoad 20:11, 29 May 2014 (UTC)

Asphalt only?
At present, the article claims that potholes only occur in asphalt pavements, and ignores dirt, gravel, brick, cobblestone, and concrete pavements completely. If valid, this narrow definition needs to be referenced to a WP:RS. Regardless, holes develop in other pavements, and need to be repaired. Should this be covered here, or in separate articles? Reify-tech (talk) 23:47, 6 February 2017 (UTC)
 * A valid question, Reify-tech. In North America, this is the commonly used application of the term. Of course, other types of pavement and unsurfaced roadways experience failures that may have similar or other mechanisms. The emphasis here on asphalt concrete is due to its overwhelming presence, worldwide. Perhaps you would be willing to supply some references to "potholes" on roadways that illustrate the term pertaining to other types of surface material. Cheers, User:HopsonRoad 16:50, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

Role of alligator cracking in pothole formation already described
User:Toheroa-jim added the following text, which I have removed, pending discussion here:


 * There are other explanations for the gradual emergence from alligator cracking to potholes that require neither water or traffic, let alone both together as suggested by the US Army Corps of Engineers. How cycles of heating and cooling can lead to development of micro-cracks that eventually morph into discrete cracks patterns, how the generic polygonal forms for these discrete crack patterns are what we often refer to as alligator (or crocodile) cracking, and how continuing cycles of heating and cooling eventually breakdown the shear bond beneath the polygonal blocks making up the alligator patterns causing the blocks to break loose to form potholes, have only recently been described. The nature of these thermal ratcheting processes and their very close relationships to similar morphological features of areas of permafrost will be described more fully in a future edit.

The contribution of various forms of pavement distress to the formation of potholes was already addressed in the section with: "Potholes form progressively from fatigue of the road surface which can lead to a precursor failure pattern known as crocodile cracking." The new text does not appear to describe further the contribution of such distresses to the formation of potholes. Sincerely, User:HopsonRoad 23:47, 9 February 2018 (UTC)

Self healing asphalt
I ran across this mention of Dutch work in self-healing roads. Is there anything to it? Jim.henderson (talk) 20:41, 11 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for checking in, Jim.henderson. This article suggests that the technology uses electrical wires to re-fuse cracked asphalt. This would not put back material that came out of a pothole, although it might prevent one in the first place.  Cheers, HopsonRoad (talk) 20:48, 11 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Correct. It's also designed for use with ZOAB, which is a Dutch-developed form of porous asphalt typically used as a friction course to reduce roadspray and improve friction. Carter (talk) 20:54, 11 April 2019 (UTC)

Graphic on crack sealing
, I've moved this graphic here because the words contain assertions about the efficacy of crack-sealing that are probably true, but are not supported by a reliable source. Instead the caption contains spam that does not support the assertions. The words offered are valuable, but they should become part of the text, supported by references. The supporting image should just be a simple one of crack sealing, not a mini-how-to procedure. Thank you for your good-faith contribution! Cheers, HopsonRoad (talk) 02:48, 16 April 2021 (UTC)