Introduction

• It seems that with the end of winter and the beginning of the spring also comes potholes of all shapes and sizes. Potholes can not only be annoying to navigate, they can also do serious damage to your car. If you are lucky to get away without a ruined tire, you will most likely still need to get your car realigned, which can add extra costs to your car maintenance budget. However, potholes are an unavoidable circumstance on roads throughout the nation.
  
  

Weather

• The beginning of a pothole starts after the temperature drops and snow begins to fall. As the snow melts during the day or during a warmer period of the winter, the resulting water seeps into the pavement of the road. The added moisture softens the paving material. Once the temperature drops again, the water freezes and expands, widening whatever crevices it came in through. This process repeats itself as the winter continues with varying temperatures until the spring. Each time the moisture freezes, it will continue to expand the pothole.
  
  

Defrost

• After the final freeze has occurred for the winter, the ice slowly melts and the water is evaporated. This leaves the beginning of small potholes all over the road. The more water that was present, and the more time the freezing and melting cycles was allowed to occur, will determine how large the pothole will become.
  
  

Car Traffic

• The final piece of the pothole puzzle is car traffic. During the entire pothole process, the affected pavement is greatly weakened. So much so that the softer piece of pavement easily break off and come out around the crevices left by the freezing process. The more cars that drive over these weak surfaces, the more pavement will break off. This slowly widens and deepens the pothole until the road is no longer navigable by traffic.