Potholes

There are over 5,200 lane miles of paved roadways in the County unincorporated area and it's inevitable that somewhere in this large area of streets there will be potholes.  SACDOT's policy is to "Repair all potholes as soon as possible."

SACDOT crews routinely inspect for — and repair — potholes as they are found.  In addition, pothole repair requests are called in or e-mailed to Customer Service by residents, law enforcement or other agencies.

What causes potholes?

  • Water: Water seeps into cracks in the roadway surface, going down to the base.  The soil under the base becomes saturated with water and turns from hard soil into mud.  The road base now has no support and a hole forms in the soil under the road base.
  • Traffic: With the road base no longer supporting the roadway surface, the roadway surface collapses forming a hole.  Extra weight from trucks increases the amount of potholes on local roadways.

How are they fixed?

The pothole is fixed by cleaning out the pothole, placing new asphalt, and compacting it to roadway level.

Why do they reappear?

Pothole repairs are intended to be permanent, and normally last for many years if the causes of the initial problem are corrected. Repairing potholes during inclement weather, or when an immediate repair of failed roadway is needed to maintain safety, may require the use of softer, temporary materials, until such time that a permanent repair can be performed.

It is our policy to “Repair all potholes as soon as possible”. Since all of our roadways are constructed using asphalt concrete (AC), we use AC to repair the potholes, which is a cost-effective and quick-fix measure for temporary repairs. As filling potholes with AC is a temporary repair, this method has a lower life expectancy. Permanent repairs are the more expensive solution, which includes digging out bad pavement sections to perform base repairs and repaving with AC. Permanent repairs have a design life of 20 years.

We monitor various 311 reported locations and schedule any temporary repairs for potholes.  Roadways in the upcoming repaving cycle will be prioritized based on many factors including, available funding, pavement management strategy, roadway Pavement Condition Index​, coordination with other projects, current maintenance needs, and maintenance history. 

Archive 

County of Sacramento Pavement Condition Report 2019 (Pavement Condition Index) 

Contact Information

To report a pothole located on an unincorporated area street or roadway:

Call 311 or 875-4311 or report online at Sac County 311 Connect.