Drivers in the Northeast face many driving conditions in the winter: snow, ice, sleet — and the dreaded pothole.
Some may be very small, while others can cause a motorist's teeth to clinch and can result in damage to a vehicle.
Public works employees, like Mount Olive's Ray Rowan and John Mendl, roam the streets in their dump truck with shovels, rakes, brooms, leaf blowers and a product called Cold Patch, as they try to keep the small potholes from becoming the big one.
Rowan, a public works veteran of 28 years, explains the science behind these annoying bumps in the road.
"It's the freezing and thawing of the roads that causes the potholes to form," he said. Rowan and his coworker, John Mendl, say that in the past two days they have used more than 2 tons of Cold Patch, a product used to temporary fill the holes until the asphalt plants reopen in the spring.
Until then, they — and hundreds of other road workers around the Garden State — will try to keep up with the repairs and advise drivers is to keep a close eye out for potholes.