PORTLAND, Ore. -- You don't have to look very hard or drive very far to notice all the potholes popping up in the Portland area.
They often sneak up on you. If you hit one just right, it may mean forking out hundreds of dollars to fix the damage.
Duane Hanson wasn't too thrilled about all the potholes around town.
“There's some really rough ones out there,” he said.
Hanson was at Affordable Tire & Brake Co. in Southeast Portland on Tuesday. This damage to his tire was caused by hitting a pothole that formed or got bigger after all the freezing weather.
“My wife was coming to pick me up at the airport on Sunday night and [a pothole] just totally shredded the tire almost immediately, which is a bummer,” said Hanson.
Hanson wasn't the only customer coming in with pothole related damage.
“Definitely a huge amount of increased phone calls in regards to potholes,” said Mike McMillen, Jr. at Affordable Tire & Brake Co.
McMillen said the shop has received maybe 10 times the amount of calls as usual.
“Pretty much daily since the thaw out, we've had an excessive amount of flat repair requests,” McMillen said.
Drivers are discovering that repairing the damage can cost a pretty penny.
“The tires themselves are over $200 but the rim maybe five,” said Hanson.
So why are there so many potholes now? Water seeps into the pavement, then freezes and expands. When it warms back up, it melts and leaves air pockets that crumble when cars drive over them.
“We're looking forward to the city finding some money to repair these potholes pretty soon,” said Hanson.
But Dylan Rivera with the Portland Bureau of Transportation said it could take weeks, maybe months to patch up potholes. Crews are still busy cleaning up all the debris from the winter storms.
“Literally some of the folks that work on paving and potholes have been addressing landslides in the last week,” said Rivera.
The Oregon Department of Transportation has been busy too. On Tuesday they posted a picture on Twitter of one of its crews filling some potholes.
Representatives with both PBOT and ODOT said they fix potholes everyday but are prioritizing ones on main roads. Report a pothole