Thousands More Potholes Filled As Denver's Freeze-Thaw Cycle Continues
DENVER (CBS4) - Crew raced along the Front Range on Tuesday to patch damaging and dangerous potholes that have materialized during recent freeze-and-thaw cycles.
On Monday night, at least 30 cars were damaged on U.S. 36 outside of Boulder, some seriously enough that they needed to be hauled away on flatbed trucks.
Erik Craig's car suffered two flat tires.
"We went down and up, and our heads pretty much hit the ceiling. It definitely scared us," he said. He said he was driving about 50 mph on U.S. 36 when his car hit the potholes. "Our two passenger-side tires were completely gashed in."
The Colorado Department of Transportation said it budgets for repair every year.
"We have an annual budget that works on pothole repair and maintenance. We go through and monitor those roads. In this incident, they came up very quickly and we got our there as quick as we could," spokeswoman Amy Ford said.
In Denver on Tuesday, potholes were plentiful near Broadway and Mississippi Avenue.
Denver Public Works said they filled 78,000 potholes last winter. So far this season, they've patched 20,000. Many more repairs are expected in the next few days.
"Once all the snow starts melting, we are going to expect seeing some more potholes out there," spokeswoman Heather Burke said.
Mechanics at Community Auto Repair in Denver said they're keeping busy because of the damage to vehicles.
"We almost always have a car in the shop with suspension damage from the current conditions," owner Ken Kasch said.
He advised drivers to slow down and keep their tires inflated properly.
CDOT said the biggest pothole along U.S. 36 has now been repaired. Drivers said they were encouraged to learn that the state may reimburse them for repair costs after thinking they were on their own.
"It's kind of frustrating, but it sounds like they might be changing their mind because of the amount of cars that were affected," driver Sarah Whitlock said.
CDOT said motorists who experience a problem while driving through one of their projects can email the transit department with concerns about damage.
