City in emergency pothole repair mode

The borough of Ville Marie is taking emergency measures to fix potholes in the downtown core following a winter that saw a particularly severe winter take its toll on Montreal roads.

Some 22 workers will be working around the clock to fill the large potholes that have plagued Montreal streets these past few weeks.

Ville Marie borough spokesperson Michel Champoux said that extreme weather fluctuations have caused new ones to crop up recently. He said there are too many potholes to count.

"We have spring-like temperatures, we have very cold temperatures on Sunday and that's ideal for the appearance of potholes," he said.

Champoux said that heavy snow removal trucks have made the situation even worse.

He said that streets such as Pine, de Maisonneuve and parts of René Lévesque will be targetted first.

Some stretches may be closed during repairs.

"There will certainly be areas affected at rush hour but we'll try and select the least sensitive points when we intervene at rush hour," he said.

The city is spending close to $250,000 on the repairs, and hopes to fix most of them by the end of the week.