The climate crisis is spurring huge and dangerous changes across the world, but it’s also creating small annoyances. It could, for one thing, make pothole season worse.
Potholes form when water seeps into cracks in the road and then freezes and melts. When water freezes into ice, it expands. When that ice melts, it leaves gaps under the pavement.
Due to harsh winter temperatures, Massachusetts and the rest of New England are particularly vulnerable to cracking pavement. In fact, a February report from QuoteWizard, a site that sells insurance, found that Massachusetts experiences worse potholes than all but five other US states, and that Springfield and Boston are among the 50 cities with the worst potholes in the nation.
Old roads are especially at risk of developing potholes. Beneath roads lie sub-bases — layers of rocks immediately under the pavement — that are meant to help water drain through. Over time, these sub-bases can clog up with debris, meaning less water drains into the soil below.
“Think of it as a sponge. If you fill a sponge with mud, you’re not going to get water to go through it, and it’s the same thing with a road,” said Maria Lehman, president elect of the American Society of Civil Engineers. “When things get inside the road bed, it doesn’t drain the water.”
The climate crisis is causing more erratic temperatures that quickly oscillate from balmy to below-freezing. More freeze-thaw cycles in New England could create more and larger holes in the ground.
“If we start getting more of these cycles, yes, we’re going to get more potholes,” said Walaa Mogawer, a research affiliate at the University of Massachusetts’ Transportation Center.
Data also suggest that climate change has led to an rise in precipitation in Massachusetts, since warmer oceans increase the amount of water that evaporates into the air and falls as rain or snow.
Meanwhile, sea level rise — another hallmark of climate change — is pushing up ground-water levels in Massachusetts, eroding roadways from below. That is weakening roadways and causing more cracks to form, both on the surface and below the ground, which can fill up with more water.
“The more water getting into the pavement ... the more problems you’re going to have,” said Mogawer, who is also a professor at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. “I expect roads will require an uptick in maintenance because of global weather changes.”
This may not be the most serious impact of climate change, but it’s still a problem. Potholes aren’t just an eyesore, they can also be dangerous for drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians, and road workers. They can also severely damage vehicles. And they’re expensive to fix.
Mogawer said one of the best ways to prevent potholes is to coat roads in sealant materials to prevent water from leaking into them. He also suggested patching cracks in the pavement immediately to keep water from seeping in.
“Treat them right away,” he said.
But Lehman said paving over cracks isn’t a long-term solution for some older roads. Some will have to be completely rebuilt to ensure they can drain water properly.
As they get reconstructed, Lehman said, officials should be sure to build with the changing climate in mind.
“Much of the design that we do, even today, is for instance based on 1970s and 1980s rainfall data,” she said.
That means that infrastructure is often designed for a world with less rain, fewer and gentler storms, and lower sea levels. A bill moving through US Congress would change that, requiring officials to incorporate more recent climate data.
Dharna Noor can be reached at dharna.noor@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @dharnanoor.