Delaware potholes: Drivers pinpoint more than 400

Calvin Eason paid the price for Delaware's pothole problem.

He hit a doozy about a week ago on Concord Pike in the Fairfax area. The pothole blew a tire and broke a rim on his 2015 Hyundai Genesis. Since a new rim had to be shipped, he had to shell out for a rental car.

Total cost: $1,005.74.

"It was horrible," Eason said. "I lived in New York for 40 years and I never saw potholes this bad."

The extra cold, wet winter created one of the worst pothole seasons in recent memory. Eason's hated pothole was among more than 400 that readers reported to The News Journal in just one week.

More than 300 were "pinned" on our interactive map; more than 100 more came in by phone, email and via Facebook. They pinned potholes from State Line Road at Delaware's north arc to rural Sussex County.

Not even Chateau Country was immune. Potholes were pinned around Greenville and Centreville, including Centerville, Hillside, Buck and Pyles Ford roads, where one reader cautioned, "Motorcycles beware!"

Some readers reported whoppers. A reader called potholes on Corinne Court near Bellefonte "the size of cars." One said a hole on Greenbridge Drive near Newark was the size of an extra-large pizza. Another dubbed one on Otts Chapel Road at Oklahoma State Drive "NO GREATER CRATER."

That last one blew out the reader's tire. After he got his flat fixed, he went back to take pothole pictures and saw two other damaged, disabled cars.

Despite some angry demands – for example, "Hope someone at DelDOT wakes up!!!" – the sorry condition of Delaware's roads as winter ends comes as no surprise or insult to the state Department of Transportation.

Pothole repair, said DelDOT spokesman Geoff Sundstrum, "is a perennial task."

"We want people to tell us where the potholes are," said Jim Westhoff, another DelDOT spokesman. "We appreciate it."

The hard winter's freezes, thaws and refreezes – with water repeatedly seeping into cracks, expanding as it turned to ice and fracturing blacktop – "created a lot of potholes," Westhoff said. "A lot of potholes."

The winter conditions were "an incubator for potholes," said Jim Lardear of the AAA Mid-Atlantic motorists' group. Delaware now has "a bumper crop," he said.

Last year, U.S. drivers' total pothole damage costs were an estimated $6.4 billion – and rising, he said. That doesn't count taxpayer money for road repair.

With spring officially arriving Friday, DelDOT does not yet know just how many potholes there are on the state's 13,000-plus miles or what repairs will cost, Westhoff said.

But workers who spent the winter salting and plowing are shifting to pothole duty, he said, acknowledging they "have plenty to do."

Nearly all primary roads in New Castle County were pinned with potholes, some at multiple spots, like Basin Road (Del. 141).

Jeff Mullins of Newark, a roadside service driver for the AAA drivers' group, one morning changed three pothole victims' flat tires there.

"I helped one person, drove a few feet, helped the next one and drove a few feet and helped the next one," he said. "They were all lined up on the shoulder. Everybody hit the same pothole."

Jennifer Covert, who lives near New Castle, was one of those who lost a tire to Basin Road's potholes, later learning the rim also was damaged. She was disappointed to learn that the DelDOT and the state provides no reimbursements to drivers who have pothole damage to their vehicles. "That just isn't right," she said.

But Covert said she was glad she reported the pothole and hopes DelDOT repairs it quickly.

The densest pothole pinning, however, was in Wilmington.

Reader Amy Desmond called North Jackson Street "a pothole nightmare," with "craters of the moon." After driving pocked Maryland Avenue, another reader said, "I need a chiropractor or a dentist."

Some readers blasted DelDOT for Wilmington potholes that are the city's burden.

"The Department of Public Works pays to repair potholes from the street and sewer maintenance budget," spokeswoman Alexandra Coppadge said, but it has no budget just for pothole repairs.

As work gets underway, she said, the city "will check The News Journal's interactive pothole map daily."

When Middletown officials studied the map, they found two kinds of potholes in town beyond their control, spokeswoman Kristen Krenzer said Wednesday.

Those were potholes in store/shopping center parking lots or on other private property and those in neighborhoods where developers are responsible. Many pins elsewhere in the state were on similar sites.

Mayor Kenneth L. Branner Jr. had good news about Cedar Lane – pinned for "massive potholes." The state road is long-marked for turnover to the town after delayed upgrades, but Rep. Quinn Johnson and Sen. Bethany Hall-Long helped get DelDOT's new leader, Jennifer Cohan, to restart the project. Branner signed the paperwork Tuesday night.

"I have to give kudos to the new secretary of transportation for realizing it's a safety issue," he told The News Journal, adding Cohan "worked hard" to help Parkside residents.

Others, however, love to hate DelDOT.

One reader accused DelDOT of pocketing road repair funds and doing nothing, leaving Elkton Road "littered with giant, and very dangerous potholes."

Newark has spent "a disproportionate amount of our resources" on that road and Christina Parkway, city spokesman Ricky Nietubicz said. DelDOT plans to resurface both of those pothole-pinned roads, he said, but "unfortunately not for several years."

Until crews from DelDOT, towns, cities and private owners have time and suitable weather in coming weeks and months to repair Delaware's perilous pits, AAA's Lardear offered some advice.

"Slow down and increase following distance to safely steer around them."

Contact robin brown at (302) 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com. Find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @rbrowndelaware.

SHOW US YOUR POTHOLES

Potholes throughout the state may be reported on our interactive map. Pothole reports also may be updated as "REPAIRED" after problems are fixed.

DIRECTIONS FOR ADDING TO THE MAP (You must use a desktop browser to add to the map. If you are using one of our apps, you can view the map here.)

1. Zoom into the area of your sighting – using the zoom controls or search box.

2. Click on the plus (+) sign in the top-right corner of the map.

2. In the Location area, enter the name of the nearest town (with the state), click "Search" and make your selection from the provided list.

3. Click on the "Map Select a Location" link and hit "OK" in the alert pop-up window.

4. Click on the exact place of your sighting on the map (please be as precise as possible) and then hit the "Preview" button to check your pinpoint.

5. Go the "Details" tab and fill out the requested information.

6. Optional: Go the the "Media" tab to upload a photo.

7. Click "Submit."

8. Save the URL in case you need to edit your entry.

REPORT POTHOLES DIRECTLY

Delaware's Department of Transportation asks residents to report potholes by calling #77 for direct connection to its 24-hour Traffic Management Center, spokesman Jim Westhoff said.

DelDOT also welcomes pothole reports at dotpr@state.de.us, (302) 760-2080 and (800) 652-5600. Reports also may be submitted using forms at www.deldot.gov/ReportRoadCondition.

In Wilmington, potholes should be reported to the city's Department of Public Works at (302) 576-3878, spokeswoman Alexandra Coppadge said. They also may be reported using the city's "Report It, Resolve It" app, available for free download at reportitresolveit.wilmingtonde.gov.

In Newark, spokesman Ricky Nietubicz said, city officials recommend reporting potholes to the Public Works Department using the "Report a Concern" link on the city website, www.cityofnewarkde.us. Potholes also may be reported by calling the department at (302) 366-7000 and choosing option 5, then option 4.

Potholes within municipal limits also may be reported to local governments.

Call New Castle's Public Services Department at (302) 322-9813, Middletown's Department of Public Works at (302) 378-2211, Dover's Department of Public Works at (302) 736-7025 and Georgetown's Public Works Department at (302) 856-6045.

WHEN YOU CAN'T AVOID A POTHOLE

Sometimes, there's just no getting around a pothole.

For example, there's a deep and wide one on southbound East Main Street (Del. 7) in Christiana, just east of the Christiana Bypass (Del. 273) that covers almost all of the right turn lane toward westbound Del. 273.

We showed the photo to Kurt E. Gray, director of driver services for the nonprofit AAA Mid-Atlantic motorists' association.

Our question: "When you can't avoid a pothole, what's the safest way to go through it?"

He shared this advice:

You want to avoid as much of the pothole as you can while keeping your vehicle in its lane.

Also, the slower the better when driving through a pothole – but be mindful of the drivers behind you if you slow down abruptly, they may not expect such a drastic change in your speed for what may appear to be no reason.

If you're in an area where you're familiar with the potholes, I suggest you start slowing in advance of it by letting the vehicle coast and tapping your brakes as you approach it instead of braking hard at the last moment.

I often make adjustments based on the actions of drivers ahead of me if they appear to slow suddenly or swerve for what appears to be no reason.

They're like my early detection warning system.

This helps me be more prepared for the unexpected and reduce my speed accordingly. If you hit a pothole a higher speeds the vehicles behind you will likely do the same.

So your "crawl" through this particular pothole is actually helping the drivers behind you adjust for the same.

Once they get through the pothole they'll understand why you crawled through it and thank you.