Why do roads get potholes?

[@keptkozy]

That wasn't his house. He literally just walked into my yard and started doing this. When I asked him to leave, he bit me. Subscribed.

[@brandon6541]

🤣

[@rolypoly4920]

😂🤣😂

[@KingLarbear]

I'm so weak

[@alishapenny2641]

No way

[@nathancox5126]

This was a really intuitive way to explain how potholes form! Also seems like a good excuse for you to buy some new matchbox cars! Haha

[@RoadGuyRob]

"It's for work." Yeah...

[@My_name-is_Skylar_White_yo]

@@RoadGuyRob hahaha same i have like 1k of the because i was collecting them since i was like 3

[@KingLarbear]

@@RoadGuyRob I love it

[@joshualaw375]

"Mom, the weird guy in the orange vest is playing with food and toy cars in our garden again!" All kidding aside, this was a great illustration to describe the weathering and formation of potholes :)

[@RavenCarver]

The $1/ month I'm kicking over to you on Patreon is going towards this? Better step it up to $2/month haha

[@Jake-mc4zk]

Almost didn’t recognise you without sunglasses! Cool video dude! Awesome as always!

[@A.Martin]

Its usually more of a gradual process, once the crack forms then every time a vehicle drives over the crack it forces the water out through the crack with a tiny bit of soil dissolved. and over time more and more soil gets pushed out and a dip develops in the road which when cars hit it they put more force on that spot which accelerates the damage, eventually more cracks form and the asphalt breaks up because it can't handle so much bending from the vehicles driving over it, and a hole has formed. Preventative maintenance is to find these cracks before the damage happens and seal them up to keep water from getting in. You will often see these black lines on the road where they have sealed cracks. Its not a permanent fix but it will slow down the degrading of that patch of road until it and the rest of the road surface is due for replacement.

[@christopherjunkins]

That's not the only way. There's also "Lensing" which is where that water gets under the asphalt and in the winter freezes. As the ice expands, it makes that area wider under the asphalt, then when it melts, it leaves a larger area for more water to come in, freeze, and then expand for more over and over... until *CRACK* the asphalt opens up into that hole or someone drives over it as in your demonstration. It might not be a simi that causes the initial cracking either, just heat values swinging around can cause that as well, it can also be that the asphalt itself just got old and cracked. Either way water finds it's way in and either erodes it as water does, or freezes in the winter pushing up and down on that bit of asphalt making things worse with each iteration until... well, there you go another pot hole. Then there's also wrecks. Wrecks can cause pot holes as well, if violent enough to cause a car to dig into the road. Also snow-chains left on can do that too... well the opening of the asphalt that is.

[@RobShutt357]

Most cracking is caused by expansion and contraction of the asphalt due to thermal extremes. Although heavy loads on asphalt not designed for the weight will cause that like you demonstrated. Once the pavement cracks you can prevent a pothole by sealing the crack to keep moisture out. Well done.

[@xxgn]

The air gap itself tends to be caused by the water freezing/thawing, creating air gaps. This is in contrast to a sinkhole, pothole's far more dangerous sibling. Sinkholes are caused by water actually eroding the soil itself, leaving behind a thin layer of asphalt on top of a giant hole. Practical Engineering built a model of what can happen if an underground pipe has a small leak at kzbin.info/www/bejne/m16nh3yHhdaGbqc

[@jasonreed7522]

Frost and Freeze/Thaw cycles are murder on a any asphalt surface. Especially once water gets under it and the ice really starts causing soil movement with its 7% expansion factor. (Given enough time entire rocks get lifted right up through the road)

[@knightcrusader]

Poor Mrs. Maiden China... she got the raw end of the deal here....

[@soap1056593]

He’s done it again. Roadside bob has tricked me into learning road knowledge. Love your videos man!

[@user-ne4ld3jp6i]

Best part of this video is his choice to film in a garden and not in a kitchen

[@AlexTangBang]

Should we still use asphalt then? Since we need to have trucks transport things. You should do a video on highway road materials! Concrete vs asphalt vs .... dirt? Maybe a quick history on road materials? Stone roads to asphalt to whatever the next material? Great video!

[@errolv]

The good thing about asphalt is that it's flexible - over time it "mooshes" - just make sure you have a good underlayment, like brown sugar! It's also easily recycled. Also, road departments around the world know it's often cheaper than concrete.

[@jandraelune1]

There are even more ways in the rust belt to form potholes. Road salt, snowplows, rapid cooling and heating. The salt opens gaps in the ice, this gap concentrates water and sunlight on that point to expedite the process cooling and heating for creating cracks. Snowplows come by instead of leaving the blades just off the pavement, they scrape it and bite into those cracks breaking them wide open.

[@jasonreed7522]

And during freeze thaw cycles the moisture content under the road will freeze and expand and lift the entire road up, and then it melts and it all falls back down but slightly out of place and this also causes damage. (This is the action that tips over our telephone poles, its a type of land movement called a creep because the land is just barely creeping along vs a landslide or mudflow) Bonus points if a rock comes up through the pavement, even more bonus points if it takes a couple years for them to bother fixing the pavement and remove the rock. (May or may not be speaking from direct experience on the rock in the road)

[@MarkReviews]

*SECOND most delicious asphalt I've ever tasted.

[@virginiansupremacy]

What is the first

[@My_name-is_Skylar_White_yo]

the , WHAT?

[@gregr3720]

Whenever the streets get a new asphalt cover, the very next week I see city workers or utility companies already cutting into it. They ruin the surface right away and when they fill those square holes, it always dips lower than the rest of the street.

[@HavokTheorem]

Glad nobody walked in just as you said "BIG GAPING HOLE IN THE AS-"

[@Eschatonx]

Finally! I wonder where you went, glad to see a new video!

[@MM-ln1dp]

Great video! Love the creativity and effort and how informative these are

[@KingLarbear]

Watching you have this much fun made me so happy

[@scratchpad7954]

1:35 Just a few blocks away from me, one of the worst roads along the entire Wasatch Front for this kind of problem is 2700 South in Salt Lake City. I think 3900 South in East Millcreek (which is even closer to me and forms the southern border between Millcreek and Holladay) is a very good contender. I believe it has to do with our many underground springs and a very shallow water table.

[@errolv]

Nearly all the pothole explanations here use water. But a pothole making expansion missing is the hydraulic pressure from tires. 1. Water from rain or the gutter gets on the asphalt roadway. 2. Cars roll on the wet asphalt. 3. The weight of the tires pushes the water into any crack. 4. The hydraulic pressure, same as freeze and thaw, opens the crack a bit more. Next car!

[@dougfrith5001]

When the winter comes with freezing and thawing, the water underneath the asphalt freezes (and increases by about 10%), then thaws. That 10% expansion then becomes a gap into which the pavement falls. There's got to be a better way!

[@michaelmayne6097]

You can see the progression of quality in your videos man please keep up the good work

[@nicholasalonzo354]

It's 1 am, watching your very informative and interesting video, and BAM, I'm hungry. ..thanks for nothing bub. I've hit the suscriber button. ..from Trinidad and Tobago.

[@JDMatthias]

Look up and please consider doing a video on mechanical pavement! Mechanical pavement may just save us money in the long run on road repairs and avoiding all kinds of potholes in the future

[@cagedtigersteve]

Cooking with Rob! Perhaps using some solid graham crackers, roasted marshmallows, and solid bars of chocolate would taste better.

[@errolv]

"roasted marshmallows" - those white dashed lines must be made of marshmallow¡

[@proletariennenaturiste]

When somebody says "explain like you're professor Frink explaining to a five year old."

[@sammyurno1]

I like the way how you explain thing with simple stuff

[@Troy-ol5fk]

This explains things so well

[@sierranexi]

Man plays with crackers and toy trucks in his backyard

[@ANTSEMUT1]

And yet my country which is very rainy insist on transporting high volume cargo on our roads, and has the gall to act surprised when potholes appear on the roads with lots of big cargo trucks going over it.

[@edwinguerrero2807]

The real crime is you didn't use milk to symbolize the rain

[@williamrutkowski]

This is so interesting. I like how you explained this.

[@dougamaral653]

Great example! Simplified made easy!

[@TS_Mind_Swept]

I've heard of chocolate rain before, but chocolate roads? 🤔

[@lobsterboyx]

I'd love to see a video about asphalt vs the concrete roads that used to dominate the landscape - also why concrete remains somewhere..

[@moonbear5929]

Concrete roads seem to remain in the hotter states like Texas because if they used asphalt it would remain soft in the hotter months and be sticky. That doesn't happen with concrete. Once it's dry, it's fine, doesn't melt in the heat. In the colder states they use the asphalt because when the weather freezes, concrete tends to break apart easier. Asphalt on the other hand is more flexible and can handle the temp swings easier. It doesn't get hot enough in the northern climates to make the asphalt melt in summer.

[@ghost307]

Concrete lasts longer but it asphalt has a cheaper initial cost...and some people are more interested in doing things cheap repeatedly and other people are interested in the lowest lifetime cost.

[@jasonreed7522]

@@ghost307 asphalt is also infinitely recyclable. This is because cold and hot asphalt concrete are the same chemical substance, agregate (usually stone) bound together by tar/oil and maybe some additives. This means all you need to do to reuse it is grind it up, remove some dirt, heat it up, and lay it back down and they have machines that do all of this in 1 step on site which is exceptionally cheap as fas as road building is concerned. In contrast Portland cement concrete is lime, water, agregate, and additives and when mixed undergoes a chemical change from a slurry to man made stone in a process called curing. The final product is way more durable which is great for freeways with heavy truck traffic, but also much harder to repair than a just add heat road. Obviously this adds a lot of caveats related to the local conditions, but in the north frost is murder on the "flexible" asphalt and concrete always cracks (just look at our sidewalks, even 4'x4' squares ger wrecked by real winter, technically its the ends of wither with constant freeze-thaw cycling). However in a place like Pheonix AZ is litterally gets half way to boiling as the air temperature, to say nothing of the black roadway in the sun, this will definitely cause problems if any heavy vehicle (so any vehicle) trys to drive on it when its half melted again. And obviously concrete has a larger upfront cost, and other externalities to consider for both. Practical Engineering has a video on the topic of asphalt concrete that is definitely worth a watch.

[@eurosonly]

What about during the winter season with snow plows?

[@n0rsca392]

I actually learned something from this, lol

[@brandon6541]

Ikr lol

[@518adventures4u]

I started a campaign sorta like mode "Potholes Matter" by the way if a street intersection has stoplights that just recognize vehicles and not bicycles and a bicyclist needs to turn left what's the best way to approach it? I see many accidents or acidents in the making here.

[@brandongaines1731]

Guess where I work ... My reaction throughout the video: "Oh look! He got that at Dollar Tree!" "Oh look! He got THAT at Dollar Tree!" "Oh look! He got THOSE at Dollar Tree!"

[@vlv723]

If you make it out in Compton, CA...that is the pothole capital of the world. They have a 10.25% sales tax and yet still can't improve their roads.

[@moonbear5929]

The next question is, why can't the damn DOT ever fix the friggin potholes PROPERLY?! As soon as they fill them, they pop right out again in no time!

[@moonbear5929]

@@Yashisaur Yeah, I've seen that tactic too.

[@RyanKlapperich]

I suspect because the proper fix is tearing up the road and rebuilding the underlying soil layers. That's expensive and time consuming, so they apply Band-Aids until it's intolerable.

[@ghost307]

The politicians always want the cheap and fast fix instead of doing it right.

[@jordanissport]

More videos!!

[@MikeBMW]

In the North, I've always thought it was the freezing (ice expands) and thawing effect?

[@owenmitchell1469]

It is, but this is a cause as well.

[@MarkReviews]

Great video! It makes so much sense!

[@jonathanselevators]

You should do a concrete version of this, a nice concrete road made by road guy rob

[@adrianbustamantemart]

Creative way of teaching !

[@alejandrotrombono6234]

I got to try this

[@scottchristensen4081]

Hay Rob. So after watching this video I’m curious to know, do you think concrete roads are better than asphalt? I know they both have their advantages and disadvantages and think you should make a video about that. Concrete roads vs asphalt roads

[@jasonreed7522]

Practical engineering covers this exact topic. Basically asphalt concrete (its full name) is infinitely recyclable because no chemical reactions happen to "cure it" which makes it easy to repair but also less durable. Traditional cement concrete is much more durable and expensive than asphalt bit also harder to repair so it usually is reserved for only freeways, and bridges in general. As for what is better, its entirely dependent on the use case.

[@TheStig_TG]

"Mrs.....MADE IN CHINA"

[@MrNateSPF]

Mrs. Maiden China

[@sadmanh0]

so what we need is more flexible asphalt?

[@pepperonipizza75]

This video deserves more likes and views

[@ElonMuckX]

With concrete freeways, how long will they last??

[@notdimsum8359]

the most representative video about potholes i could ever find

[@monkisethojane2218]

Love your videos

[@rileysmith9843]

These are all over MI roads.

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

Everything is built on top of soil even if we _don't_ think about it.

[@robertaviles8451]

And yet, ancient Roman cities have roads that are still intact!

[@proletariennenaturiste]

Making me feel guilty for wanting to be a truck driver.

[@shaggyhascancer4489]

I’m assuming this also explains why some roads don’t allow trucks, to stop potholes from forming.

[@farhysthunterz6654]

Could you explain if the soil is formed by peat soil ...why it always a disaster to road way

[@NewthingsNeno]

Amazing

[@savagekingtexas_3990]

Or just tell the road to not get potholes xD

[@nathanlarson7408]

Oh, POT-holes...

[@poshko41]

Neighborhood Karen is watching you from her window.

[@videoshomepage]

The camera work was so bad haha but still good information.

[@oswaldoriginal5037]

NOT really describe how a pothole is made... he missed out 1. road these days are not just asphalt on soil, but the soil is made stronger with a crusher run stone base first, it gets compacted hared with sands in between the stones and get tested for strength, then surface swept clean for dust before a liquid hot bitumen is sprayed as sticker then the premixed asphalt is spread on the road then the rollers comes in to compact. 2. Now he is right about the cracked formed by heavy lorries forming a depression on the road, but depressions are also formed by failures of the rock based or lack of roadside drains which soften the soil below or even erode the subase below the asphalt layer.. 3. But as long as a depression is made on the road, the rain fills it with water and everytime a tyre runs over a puddle, it starts eating away at the top of the asphalt layer via strong negative pressures and once the black layer is gone, the subbase hole will simply gets larger fast with every passing tyres.... simple

[@kenmore01]

This video is awesome! Now, why does it take them so long to fix them? More importantly, having driven the I-90 from Seattle to Missoula Mt., why do they say road construction next 20 miles, narrow the road to one lane at 35 MPH (instead of the normal 80), and have NOTHING going on??? Do they actually enjoy inconveniencing us motorists, or do they indend to work that area next month, and our inconvenience means nothing...or, is it some plan to slow us down because of tourism? I wish I knew, and I wish they would stop. It makes flying more attractive, and TBH, flying sucks.

[@ahjgbhlahgaohgl]

"Bam! It goes right into the hole!" Lol

[@Serjnoe]

Gaping whole in the assphalt?? 🧐

[@jasonfischer8946]

So, ehen someone tells you to eat asphalt...

[@princeplotena]

Where's the new video Rob?

[@rippytherazor868]

Please have my children

[@kayzeaza]

Cause all these states are legalizing weed! Hahaha

[@Toad-In-A-Puddle]

Why didn't you start eating the cracker, sugar, chocolate road? No reason to waste all those good pothole ingredients.

[@1234BaileyDavid]

Have you considered standup?

[@davejoseph5615]

Every time there is a lane closure you get a traffic jam. Is there any way to avoid that? The usual cause is of course the people who stay in the closed lane up to the last instant. They then try to merge at the last instant. Sometimes that is impossible.

[@KingLarbear]

I would of used nutella

[@realrawmcgraw8512]

That's what she said

[@jean-lucpicard3012]

Because taxationistheft

[@zhuofanzhang9974]

Imagine how cringy this video would've been without the context. Also it's a crime that this intuitive explanation video hasn't got 10000+ views yet.

[@ibecomhaire8724]

Instructions unclear, cunstructed road using chocolate sauce.

[@jonathancharles3057]

Where does the term pothole come from (hint it’s from US40 in Ohio)? When you find out, then please do a video about the “National Road” aka Cumberland road.

[@lapamful]

It's not like the US doesn't have a rail network which is really the ideal for transporting goods but going by rail must be so expensive everyone prefers trucking instead and so the roads get ruined...

[@tommyw.9424]

Trains can't replace trucks, only supplant them, which they do.

[@Bendigo1]

Its actually where someone hites their Marijuana, they just don't fill the holes after they take it back out... Get it? Pot holes.... 🤦‍♂️

[@ItalianStallion1415]

3 ESALS ÷ 0.003 ESALS = 1000 times not 1600

[@dsantkuyl]

Hmmm, I like your roadside commentary much better than video from your garden. Maybe stick to your wheelhouse.