They make bumps in the road and can hurt your car. The best strategy people can take with potholes is to avoid them and report them to the city or county in which they live. Depending on where the road is, it can fall under either jurisdiction.
“The biggest issue that we see with potholes is broken tires or damage to people's rims sometimes bottoming out. We consider these to be a priority one road hazard, which is why we try to prioritize those and fix them," said Josh Roberts, the Transportation Division Manager at the County of San Luis Obispo.
According to Roberts, the county tries to respond to potholes reports within 24 hours.
“We do field frequent requests. The county road crews actually address about 4,000 maintenance requests every year, and we prioritize those based on keeping the roads open and safe. Obviously, potholes result in either damage to your car or folks swerving to avoid them,” said Roberts.
To repair a pothole, it can cost between a few hundred dollars to more than a thousand.
“Typically, potholes show up after storms, we fully expect that we'll be out on the roads doing cleanup over the next week or so, that includes debris removal, taking care of any downed trees, and we will definitely be seeing pothole reports,” said Roberts.
After the rain, the county is expecting more reports.
“When the when the poor condition roads tend to be more prone to getting potholes, the county has a pavement management program where we try to service up to about 75 miles a year of county roads,” said Roberts.
People in the city of San Luis Obispo can reach the Public Works Department at their website and those who report potholes in county jurisdictions can make a maintenance request here.
