Recent rainfall has made Colorado roads even more pothole prone this spring
It was a rough ride for Todd Bethke on 6th Avenue. Cruising along in the middle lane headed east Monday, he struck what felt like the mother of all potholes.
"I hit it and I knew exactly when I hit it that something was wrong," he said.
Fishing in the trunk he pulled out the tire he changed to show us. It had a big bubble in the sidewall that looks ripe for a blowout. On the front driver's side was a spare. On the rear driver's side was another tire with a bubble in the sidewall.
"I don't even know if the rims are any good anymore or if they're bent."
Springtime typically brings the work of pothole filling on roads around Colorado, but the record rains in recent days have added a wrinkle to roads.
"It's kind of like the freeze thaw cycle on steroids," said Brian Knight, pavement project manager for Jefferson County's Road and Bridge Division.
"The freeze thaw cycle is a little slower. It gets underneath, it freezes, it thaws, it slowly breaks it apart. The rain gets underneath and just delapidates the pavement, breaks it down underneath. And then when the cars drive over it, it just blows apart so much quicker," said Knight. "It separates the bonding agents between the asphalt and the binders that hold the asphalt together."
6th Avenue (State Highway 6) is Colorado Department of Transportation's road. It, too, has crews out filling holes.
"We get the weather like this and it causes the already existing potholes to get worse or places where there weren't any potholes yet to get a pothole," said department spokeswoman Presley Fowler.
Growth and increased traffic is a contributing issue.
"We have more motorists on the road, more cars on the road so because of that if you have a spot that is forming a pothole and you have more and more vehicles driving over it is going to form quicker," added Fowler.
Bethke ended up pulling over on Sheridan Boulevard after hitting the pothole somewhere around Garrison Street or Wadsworth Boulevard. He also called CDOT. Later in the day, the hole appeared to have been filled.
The arterial streets and roads, Knight said, are likely to take some of the worst pounding.
"They get the more traffic ... counts, the more weight loads, they just break down quicker."
There are new pavement types coming into use in some areas like arterial roads in Jefferson County. It's known as SMA for stone matrix asphalt.
"The best way to describe it is it's like a stone on stone mix. So you don't have as many of the fines in it and it just helps bond together more," said Knight.
The larger aggregate pieces are more in contact, rather that the binder. It's being used more in Jeffco's southern areas like Littleton, but not all over.
But heavy rain is costing roads right now. Lingering moisture is degrading what is there are crews are trying to get to the damage.
"We just ask people to be patient. We know they're there. We appreciated letting us know where more are. And we have crews out doing the best they can," said Knight.
You can call your local government, or often file pothole reports online on Jeffco's website.
Here are phone numbers to report potholes on state roads as well:
CDOT customer service hotline numbers:
• Metropolitan Denver (Region 1): 303-759-2368
• Southeastern Colorado (Region 2): 719-562-5568
• Northwestern Colorado (Region 3): 970-243-2368
• Northeastern Colorado (Region 4): 970-350-2368
• Southwestern Colorado (Region 5): 970-385-1423
You can file a claim with the state here.
