Ayd Mill Road Pothole & Road Decay Timeline
A structured, public-record timeline of pothole reports, repair intervals, and surface-decay observations on Ayd Mill Road. I publish this dataset so any Minnesota driver encountering a road-surface defect—on Ayd Mill or anywhere else—has a working example of how to document infrastructure conditions before evidence disappears.
Scope note: The data below is specific to Ayd Mill Road in Saint Paul. The framing and methodology apply statewide to any Minnesota road-surface defect claim.
Dataset Overview
What This Dataset Tracks
Ayd Mill Road is a 1.5-mile sunken connector between Interstate 35E and Selby Avenue in Saint Paul, and it has been a recurring problem surface for more than a decade. This timeline consolidates Saint Paul Public Works and Ramsey County records into a single structured view.
The point is practical. When a driver is injured by a road-surface defect, insurers ask first whether the hazard was known, reported, and unrepaired. A timeline answers that — a chronology with dates, sources, and observable outcomes.
- Primary use: document notice-and-repair history for road-surface defect claims.
- Spatial coverage: Ayd Mill Road corridor, Saint Paul (I-35E to Selby Avenue).
- Source categories: City of Saint Paul Public Works records, Ramsey County public data, MnDOT adjacent-corridor data, published local reporting.
- License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Free to use with attribution.
Structured Timeline
Recorded Events by Year
Each row below captures a public-record event: a repair, a reopening, a documented complaint cluster, or a reporting milestone. Source tags identify the underlying record type. Where a record cluster is still being compiled, the row is marked pending verification rather than published as final.
| Year | Event / Observation | Source Category | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Saint Paul opens Ayd Mill Road corridor study; surface-condition baseline documented. | City of Saint Paul Public Works | Baseline condition record. |
| 2020 | Full-depth mill-and-overlay completed on the corridor; surface reset. | City of Saint Paul Public Works | Starting point for the post-repair decay clock. |
| 2021 | First post-overlay pothole complaint cluster recorded in Saint Paul Public Works tickets. | City 311 / Public Works tickets | Pending verification — aggregate count being confirmed. |
| 2022 | Local reporting documents ongoing surface-condition complaints; freeze-thaw cycle impact noted. | Published local reporting | Freeze-thaw is a documented Minnesota pavement-failure driver. |
| 2023 | Spot patch repairs performed; additional complaint clusters recorded in the following months. | City of Saint Paul Public Works | Typical short-repair-cycle pattern for high-stress surfaces. |
| 2024 | Continued patch-repair activity; condition reports reference recurring decay segments. | City of Saint Paul Public Works | Pending verification — per-segment records being compiled. |
| 2025 | Public discussion of broader corridor rework; interim patch repairs continue. | Published local reporting & city records | Planning-stage records only; no completed rework as of publication. |
Row integrity rule: if a row cannot be anchored to a named public-record category, it is not published. We do not fabricate entries.
Methodology
How This Dataset Was Built
The timeline is assembled from four source categories: City of Saint Paul Public Works records (including published corridor studies and repair activity), Ramsey County public data, MnDOT data for adjacent corridors where the interaction matters, and local reporting from established Twin Cities outlets. Every row is tied to at least one source category. Undocumented anecdotes are excluded.
The companion methodology page explains the verification steps, the public-records request sequence, the freeze-thaw adjustment logic, and the rules we use to classify a row as verified versus pending.
Transparency note: This is a living document. When Saint Paul Public Works or MnDOT publishes new records that change a row’s classification, the timeline is updated and the change is noted in the freshness footer below.
Why This Dataset Exists
Road-Surface Evidence Is a Forensic-Foundation Problem
Road-surface defects are a recurring fact pattern in Minnesota personal injury cases. Motorcycle crashes, bicycle crashes, single-vehicle loss-of-control incidents, and serious commercial-vehicle collisions all turn, at some point, on whether the surface condition was known to the governing authority and unrepaired. That is an evidence question, and evidence decays fast. Patch repairs cover the original defect. Work orders roll off public dashboards. Witness memory fades.
That is why this dataset sits inside the Andrade Method’s first pillar — the forensic-evidence stage. Pillar I’s working premise is that liability positions become unwaivable only when the underlying physical record is preserved before the defense can dispute it. A published road-decay timeline is one piece of that preservation work. It lets an injured driver, or a reviewing lawyer, point to a chronology that existed before the crash — not one assembled after the fact.
The same forensic-foundation discipline applies to adjacent evidence categories: traffic-camera footage, telematics, dashcam video, EDR black-box data, and scene photography. The MnDOT traffic camera preservation protocol and the secure evidence locker are companion resources for that work.
Where This Data Applies
Related Services and Datasets
Road-surface evidence shows up most often in three litigation lanes at our firm: motorcycle accident and rider injury litigation, bicycle accident and cyclist injury litigation, and premises liability and property owner negligence claims where the property abuts a public roadway. For the broader spatial picture of Saint Paul crash patterns, the companion St. Paul motor vehicle crash heatmap and injury patterns dataset is the geographic counterpart to this corridor-specific timeline.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common Questions About This Dataset
Can I use this timeline in my own injury claim? +
Yes. The timeline is published under a Creative Commons Attribution license specifically so injured drivers, their lawyers, and journalists can cite it. What you should not do is treat any single row as conclusive on its own. Pair the timeline with the underlying public records and, if an injury claim is involved, with documented evidence of the specific defect that caused your crash.
What should I do if I hit a pothole on a Minnesota road and was injured? +
Three things, in order. Get medical care. Photograph the defect, the vehicle damage, and the scene while the conditions still exist — lighting, weather, and nearby landmarks all matter later. Preserve any dashcam or telematics data. Road-surface defect claims against a government entity also have notice requirements under Minn. Stat. § 466, so the calendar matters from day one.
Does this dataset only cover Ayd Mill Road? +
The data itself is Ayd Mill Road specific. The framing is not. The same methodology — public-record timelines, source-tagged rows, a documented decay clock — applies to any Minnesota corridor where road-surface evidence matters. If you need the same structure built for a different corridor, the companion methodology page explains how to assemble one.
How often is the timeline updated? +
On a rolling basis whenever the City of Saint Paul Public Works records, MnDOT data for adjacent corridors, or published reporting changes a row’s classification. Each update is reflected in the freshness footer at the bottom of this page.