Road Hazards Grand Canyon Of Potholes Claims At Least Six Cars

Smile when you hit that pothole.

Each ruined tire or wobbly wheel is a sign that spring is just around the bend. Of course, the pavement on that bend is pockmarked with craters large enough to hide a Miata.

Spokane is blessed with a bumper crop of jumbo potholes this year.

One, on Grand Boulevard, was so big it left at least six cars with two flat tires apiece, said a resident who watched the mechanical carnage from her front window.

All that in just a half-hour’s time.

“It was at least 6 feet long,” said the neighbor, who would not give her name. “They brought in police” to guide cars around the hole while city crews patched it.

Potholes bloom on Spokane streets as soon as the ground thaws. The wetter the soil, the colder the freeze and the quicker the thaw, the bigger the crop of roadway craters.

Given that criteria, it’s no surprise “we have potholes all over,” said Phil Barto, head of road maintenance for Spokane County.

In less than a week, Spokane went from subzero temperatures to the mid-40s. Nearly 2 feet of snow melted.

The result is a busy season for street-repair crews, mechanics and tire dealers. Hitting a pothole too hard can throw a car’s front end out of alignment, bend a wheel or worse.

Jerry Babington, manager of Perfection Tire and Auto Repair in north Spokane, said the biggest pothole-related bill he’s seen was $750. A Chevrolet Lumina needed a new alloy wheel, a new tire, and a new control arm, strut and axle.

At the downtown Les Schwab Tire Center, “we’re probably seeing 40 to 50 percent more (pothole damage) than we ever have before,” said assistant manager Scott Sutton.

Most tire dealerships pay for replacements if a customer’s tires were still under warranty. Drivers who aren’t so lucky often ask the city to cover the bill.

The government isn’t liable for damages caused by Mother Nature unless it knows about a hazard and doesn’t take reasonable steps to correct quickly, said the city’s risk manager, Diana Levin.

Exactly what’s reasonable is left up to an arbitrator, who handles the claims. Rarely in past years has the city had to pay for pothole damage, Levin said.

In the four days ending Tuesday, Levin received about 60 reports of potholes, most of them concerning the Grand Boulevard monster and its equally ugly brother on North Division. Most people only wanted the potholes fixed, but Levin expects a few will file claims.

“People can file a claim for just about anything they want,” she said.

Gaping holes are a priority for city crews, who arrived a half-hour after the first car was damaged on Grand, according to the woman who watched from her home. Other holes have to wait until asphalt trucks can make the rounds.

“Given that it’s the same crew that plows the streets, that sweeps the streets that puts out the de-icer, they’re spread pretty thin,” said Assistant City Manager Bill Pupo.

The same weather that creates potholes makes them difficult to fix, said Barto. Patching works best when the pavement is dry and warm.

In cool or wet weather, crews who fix a hole must do the work again, just a few days later, he said.

People who say this is the worst pothole year ever simply aren’t looking back far enough, Barto said. Patching materials have improved significantly in recent years.

“Ten or 15 years ago, we always had more trouble with potholes,” he said. This year’s crop “is not as bad as it was back in those days, but it’s worse than we’ve seen in several years.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo; Graphic: How frost-heaves form