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How to fill in potholes/road maintenance

LoaderMan94

New Member
Joined
May 10, 2026
Messages
3
Location
Canada
Filling in potholes after a washout. What's the best way to go about doing it, without wasting mountains of material blanketing the whole roadway? Doing it the way I do it, I backblade a whole bucket over a bunch of potholes, but I waste a bunch covering the road and not the potholes and after a few passes of rock truck the holes pop back out just as bad as before I put the gravel.

Thanks guys,

For reference I'm on a Komatsu 475
 

JaredV

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2022
Messages
695
Location
SW WA
Are they full of water? Water just makes the material mushy and squish out. But you can use the material to displace the water and come back a little later when the water has drained off the road. With a grader, if I can't cut them out, I'll fill them, wheel pack them, top them off and repeat our let trucks do the wheel packing. I'll ask trucks to aim for the holes to splash the water out before I get there but for whatever reason, they usually won't even though they have no problem driving through them to make them. Just have to stay on top of the holes until you get them fixed if you can't cut them out.

Or if I can cut a little, I'll top them off, wheel pack and get them mostly filled, then cut down a little to get below what I filled, but I still have to touch them up after a little traffic so they don't get away from me.

But getting the water out of them to start is a big help.
Do youu have teeth or a smooth cutting edge?
 

LoaderMan94

New Member
Joined
May 10, 2026
Messages
3
Location
Canada
That sounds like a good idea! I will bring a full bucket of material, dump off to the side , cut the holes out , fill and wheel pack.

It makes sense to cut until you’re on good ground with the water gone , then build back up.

Thank you for your replies.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
17,930
Location
Canada
I struggled with potholes on the driveway at my property. Didn't want to dig up what was hard packed but filling them with road crush never lasted very long.
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
15,957
Location
Alabama
Occupation
Running what I brung and taking what I win
X3 - Gotta dig the potholes out and re-grade other wise the holes will come right back. Same way with washboards.
 

LoaderMan94

New Member
Joined
May 10, 2026
Messages
3
Location
Canada
I ran into this problem again. There was a big set of ruts on a sharp comer and a muddy hole before the corner.

For the corner I back dragged a thick layer over the ruts cutting the middle hard top and wheel packing layer by layer until I was happy with the results

The mud hole . I back dragged the mud out the best I could and did the same thing I did for the corner brush out rocks and the last bit of mud that got mixed up in the material I brought.

Wheel packing layer by layer , the last layer I put on a bit extra and pressed it down with a weighted bucket before smoothing it out and wheel packing one more time. it looked a lot better than just covering it up and hoping for the best. The rock truck drivers were thanking me and saying it was a lot better as a was building it and they were rolling by.

Thanks a lot guys :):)

Cutting out the mess/water/mud is number 1
 

Coaldust

Senior Member
Joined
May 9, 2011
Messages
6,039
Location
Subarctic Backwoods Trailer Park
Occupation
Big trucks is what I know. HAZMAT is what I tow.
I missed something. You fix potholes with a 475? I’m impressed. Good to have you on the HEF LoaderMan94.

“For reference I'm on a Komatsu 475”.


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