AUGUSTA (AP) – Potholes are making an early appearance in Maine with this winter’s warm temperatures and heavy rains.

The conditions have allowed water to seep through small road cracks to underlying gravel, where it creates a void. When the unsupported asphalt gets pounded by cars and trucks driving over it, large cracks and potholes appear.

Augusta Public Works Director John Charest said he already has posted some roads banning heavy loads – something he wouldn’t normally do until March. With the ground saturated, Charest said water has no place to go.

“I have got water running in spots where I have never seen it before, and I have been here 37 years,” he said.

In Skowhegan, Road Commissioner Greg Dore said motorists should buckle up for what will probably be some bone-jarring driving this spring.

Dore already has had crews patching potholes in places where they have rarely, if ever, formed before.

“I think the gravel roads are going to be just unbelievable this spring. I think I may want to go on vacation,” Dore said.

State officials are also preparing for a busy road repair season come spring.

David Bernhardt, director of maintenance and operations at the Maine Department of Transportation, said roads are breaking up more than usual for this time of year.

The heavy rainfall of the past few weeks also has created other challenges, he said. With no place to go, the rainwater has flooded onto roadways and then frozen as the temperature dropped, resulting in sheets of ice that are hard to remove.

“I have to say that this spring, if it continues the way it is going, will be a very difficult spring for us. It will come at some cost,” he said.