Landon speaks with WABI about ‘pothole season’
WABI (Channel 5) interviewed Melissa Landon, an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Maine, for a report about potholes and their prevalence in the state this time of year. Landon told WABI potholes are formed throughout the winter by snow that melts, freezes and thaws. “[You have] snow and then you have ice, and when that melts, if there’s cracks in the pavement, that water seeps down into the pavement,” she explained. “The ice pushes the soil away and it creates this kind of ice cavity. And when that melts again with warm temperatures, the pavement is no longer supported and then your car drives over it and there isn’t the support from the soil underneath and it creates a bigger crack.”