Think Louisiana Potholes Were Bad Before? It’s About to Get Worse

Things are finally beginning to thaw out from the extreme cold of the last few days and though we are loving the sunshine, the bad news will soon rear its head.

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As a number of local water districts and plumbers will attest, once things begin to thaw, we will discover leaks in frozen pipes that we had no idea existed.

The same thing holds true for our local roads.

I laughed at a number of posts on social media that the ice had actually made our Louisiana roads smoother than they have been in years, and while certainly true, it's what comes next that could send thousands of us in for another front end alignment.

Louisiana roads were already bad, but the frozen weather has an affect on them that has escaped many of us.

In a story from wrex.com we get a better picture of why this Arctic blast could be a nightmare for months to come.  In their article, they explain how the freezing weather could be the impetus for a whole new crop of some major potholes.

To get potholes to form, water seeps into cracks in the road. As temperatures drop below freezing, the water in the road freezes and expands. This forces the pavement up and weakens it.

Traffic passes over the bump, further weakening the pavement. When the weather thaws and dries out, the frozen water leaves, and a hole under the pavement is left behind. As traffic passes over the hole, the pavement caves in. The pothole grows as more traffic flows over it.

Though we won't know just how bad things are until we completely thaw, Louisiana drivers can attest to the fact that we already had a major issue with our roads.

The Louisiana Coalition to Fix Our Roads says on their website:

Louisiana residents are paying an average of $533 on automotive repairs related to damage caused by road quality, an amount also referred to as the “pothole tax.” Because roads in economically depressed areas and rural regions are usually not as well maintained, the “pothole tax” for drivers living here is frequently even higher.

It's even laughable that a pothole sticks around the Shreveport/Bossier area long enough, routine drivers in these areas know exactly where they are and what they'll have to do to avoid them.  We even had a listener tell us about the potholes on Rambin Road in the Stonewall area, stating "some of the potholes are so bad, you could build a bridge across them."

Yes, it's that bad. In fact, we have listed the potholes those drivers in Shreveport/Bossier deem the absolute worst; that is, until we see what's here when things start to thaw.

Check out the list we compiled of "The Worst Bumps Or Potholes In All of Shreveport/Bossier"