The hard, slippery “snowcrete” that has plagued the Baltimore area since late January has finally begun to melt, revealing fresh holes in the region’s roadways that are likely going to worsen as overnight temperatures continue to dip below freezing.
“We’re going to see a lot more potholes than we have in the past,” said Chad Merrill, a senior meteorologist with Accuweather.
Potholes are caused by freeze-thaw cycles, and there will be plenty of them in the coming week. And in Baltimore, hundreds of open pothole-patching requests are already past due, according to an analysis of city 311 data.
The 311 data show that more than 750 pothole reports have been processed since snow began falling on Jan. 25, and most of those reports came in as the snow started to melt. As of last Thursday, about two-thirds of the over 470 open requests were past due, according to the city’s data.
A spokesperson for Baltimore’s transportation department said that the agency’s main focus since last month’s storm has been snow removal for public safety.
“While snow operations remain our top priority, any hazardous road damage will be addressed and repaired as quickly as possible,” spokesperson Kathy Dominick said on Thursday evening.
“As we recover from the recent storm, DOT will begin addressing reported potholes throughout the city,” she said.
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Baltimore hasn’t had this much snow on the ground for this long in over a decade, according to Merrill. This year’s streak of sixteen days with five or more inches of snow depth at BWI Marshall Airport tied the record set in 2010, he said. By Friday, one inch of snow cover remained at BWI, tying a record set in 1960.
The “huge snow piles in parking lots” likely won’t melt until early March, said Merrill, though most of the snow will melt next week. Some of that snow has trickled into cracks in the pavement, causing it to “bust open” the asphalt when it thaws out and freezes again, he said.
The result: bumpy roads.
The Maryland State Highway Administration has already spent nearly $1.32 million on pothole repairs throughout the state in the fiscal year ending in June, according to a spokesperson. Last fiscal year, it repaired just over 6,900 square feet of potholes — crews have already repaired more this fiscal year. And the prolonged frigid temperatures and dry air following the most recent snowstorm have “created circumstances which are not normally seen in Maryland,” said spokesperson Shanteé Felix.
Damages caused by potholes cost drivers an average of $600 per repair, according to AAA’s Mid-Atlantic office, which said that this year, they “could be springing up in many spots where drivers haven’t seen them before.” And snow plowing operations “can also further weaken sections of cracked or broken concrete or asphalt,” said Ragina Ali, AAA’s regional spokesperson.
The spike in potholes comes as the city attempts to repave its roads, a longer-term fix to pavement damaged by potholes. Baltimore officials said last year that they planned $29.9 million worth of road resurfacing projects in an effort to “significantly increase” the city’s repaving operations. But by the end of the year, the city still hadn’t completed many of those projects, according to its own resurfacing data. Those projects mainly only take place from spring to fall, as asphalt can’t settle properly in cold temperatures.
The other way to address potholes is by patching them, which is a more temporary fix. Last year, the Baltimore City Department of Transportation filled more than 134,000 potholes, according to Dominick. The city encourages residents to report potholes via 311, and the SHA takes service requests for state roads online.
The state, as well as local governments, will pay out claims for pothole damage — but only if the claimant proves that the jurisdiction was aware of the issue and didn’t take action. Baltimore paid an average of $1,455 per settled claim from 2020 to 2025, according to an analysis by The Baltimore Sun.
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