By David Harry

Staff Writer

Potholes and maple syrup may be sure signs of spring. The odor of heated asphalt is however, much more pungent than boiling sap.

While drivers can find themselves doing a pockmarked polka to avoid gaping holes or foot-long cavities in the pavement, resident Mike Casey said he finds Scarborough roads to be in better shape than neighboring ones.

Casey’s assessment may be a relief to Public Works Director Mike Shaw and Maine Department of Transportation Superintendent of Operations Tim Cusick, as each said this is the time of year crews are busy patching the gouges, cracks, chips and humps that are as imminent as robins.

Casey, who lives in Oak Hill, said a stretch of Burnham Road in West Scarborough caught his attention as he drove to Fuller Farms on Broadturn Road.

“I’ve been on smoother airplane rides,” he said.

It might seem Cusick has the upper hand in the fight against potholes; he is responsible for maintaining 44 miles of roads in town as part of the 2,500 miles he supervises in MDOT Region 1. The region, one of five in the state, stretches from Kittery to Topsham to Stow, a town north of Fryeburg on the New Hampshire border.

But the 112 miles of town-owned roads Shaw oversees are usually of better quality – less traveled by heavy vehicles and often better designed because they are newer, he said.

“Volume is a big issue – the more you have, the more it pounds the surface,” Cusick said.

As described by Shaw, Cusick and the DOT Web site, potholes are born when water seeps under hard top surface and between the gravel or clay that forms the base of the road. When the water freezes, it expands and pushes up the road surface. When the ice melts, a hollowed area under the hard top develops and the surface caves in under the weight of traffic.

Determining maintenance responsibility is made through what are called “compacts” between state and local towns for major roads such as Route 114. Where population density is lighter, the state maintains the road, although there may be separate arrangements for winter plowing, Cusick said.

But lower population density along a road does not always translate into lighter traffic levels, especially on major routes that have been used for generations, if not centuries.

“Some of these roads are carriage trails that became dirt roads and then town roads,” Shaw said.

The newer town roads, including residential streets that see little traffic from heavier vehicles, are often better designed for drainage and have a sturdier base, he said.

Shaw said he also has an advantage combating potholes and other road damage because the town bought a pavement recycling trailer about three years ago.

By buying and storing asphalt through winter, then heating it in the trailer, Shaw said crews can fix a road once and for about half the cost of materials.

The alternative is called “cold patch,” using patching material that has lower asphalt content to patch a hole or gouge and then using asphalt to make the repair permanent in the spring or summer.

Cusick said his crews use cold patch, which Shaw estimated can cost $110 a ton right now, because the weather is not warm enough for asphalt manufacturers to resume production.

The cold patch solution can be heated, but a bigger repair will still needed later in the season, Cusick said.

At the same time, Cusick is hampered from making basic road repairs because of state budget troubles, he said.

Customers who stopped at Eight Corners Market this week did generally agree with Mike Casey  that Scarborough roads were in good shape compared to other towns.

Richard Dyer, a contractor and remodeler working throughout the Portland area, said portions of Broadturn Road are not good and any roads with heavy truck traffic are showing signs of wear.

Mike Fitzgibbons, a mechanical contractor who travels through the area, praised the roads with one caveat: “Spring isn’t here yet,” he said.

Complaints about a pothole or other road damages may be made by calling the Public Works Department at 730-4400.

Shaw said callers do not need to worry about which department maintains the road; information will be passed on to the DOT office if needed.

The DOT office may be reached at 885-7000, and on weekends at 624-3339.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219