Pot hole horror stories?

[alberta_gamer]

Hey guys...

David Spence of CTV just said a pothole wrecked his steering column for $1000.

What's the most damage you've had due to a pothole?

[5.0]

Been able to avoid most of them so no damage, but have noticed wayyy more on residential roads this year...

[black13]

After that cold snap few weeks ago and the chinook right after, pot holes have popped up everywhere.

Hit a big one on stoney tr at 17 ave eb but thankfully I've avoided any damage.

[ekguy]

Snow storm in Ontario...Middle of my cross canada move...Full civic ek...One of me....One cat...

Hit a pothole at about midnight that was on the side of the lane, couldn't see it because of the snow, broke two rims, an axle, cv joint went....Both tires...Limped it to a parking lot and had to use all the money I had saved for hotels for the trip across to fix my car.

Hotel said no pets so I hid my cat in my backpack and he was moving around while I signed the papers for the hotel room for the night haha.

I am not even slightly making this up. This was the most horrible turn of events which resulted in my driving from North Bay all the way to Calgary in one go without stopping for sleep or anything but gas....39 hours...

How's that for a pot hole story haha. I still have the god damned receipt somewhere for all those repairs haha. Needed to buy 4 rims since I busted two and couldn't go on two passat rims and 2 steelies, and then 4 tires and axle on the one wheel...

It was a nightmarish 2 days.

[ddduke]

Hit a big pothole a few years back right by Deerfoot Inn. Ended up cracking my rim in half and shredding my tire, I was only doing about 50. Came out of no where and there was no sign indicating a hole had formed.

[962 kid]

Not a pothole, but I lost an aluminum chassis brace from a 8" high mound in the road just off 22x. I don't think my heart has ever skipped as many beats as when I hit that.

[adidas]

2 oil pans, 2 5L of oil, 2 oil filters, 2 free rides with ama, all within a span on 24hrs of one another. Ive had my car lowered for over 60K km and nothin up until that point.

[Disoblige]

Hit a 2-3 inch mound this morning and scared the shit out of me. I saw it just before I hit it and flinched.

Funny thing is.. A few moments later, right front suspension made a weird metal scraping sound, but never heard it again? I tried mimicing the sound again but everything seems to be okay..

Not sure what could have happened..

[btimbit]

Originally posted by black13
After that cold snap few weeks ago and the chinook right after, pot holes have popped up everywhere.

Hit a big one on stoney tr at 17 ave eb but thankfully I've avoided any damage.

They're everywhere on 14th street SW, the left northbound lane might as well be one big pothole. Thank God I'm driving a truck at the moment, there's a few big ones I haven't been able to miss.

[Cooked Rice]

oh damnn. this year is going to be horrible for potholes and rutted roads. mcknight between deerfoot and barlow is in ruins.

[happycamper]

A friend of mine just had his civic's rear end hit the ground after a pothole on Macleod at 1am. The lower bolt on his wheel knucke snapped off. Took the tow guy 3 hours to get there.

My Jeep XJ is pothole proof for two reasons:
1 - Nice new shocks
2 - Not able to go fast enough to be an issue :D

[Vdubbin]

In My Lowered GTI I hit a big pot hole a month ago and my oil pan just flattened and cracked. Cracked the oil pump in half and sent metal shards into the crank. Pulled over right away but soo after cleaning and fixing everything the bearings went on my crankshaft.

Cars still sitting on my parking pad until I have the time and money to replace the engine.

[revelations]

Originally posted by Vdubbin
In My Lowered GTI I hit a big pot hole a month ago and my oil pan just flattened and cracked. Cracked the oil pump in half and sent metal shards into the crank. Pulled over right away but soo after cleaning and fixing everything the bearings went on my crankshaft.

Cars still sitting on my parking pad until I have the time and money to replace the engine.

Thats pretty awful. My EP3 hatch was lowered by the previous owner to something like 6" of ground clearance - idiotic for winter driving.

Do people think this is California? The owner also had 40 series tires, a fantastic idea for our smooth and even roads out here.

After "plowing snow" for 2 winters I raised the car 1" below stock height last fall. Best move ever.

[ercchry]

old q45 had 2 inches of clearance to oil pan... clipped a raised manhole, dropped 6L of oil within a block... huge tow/cleanup bill. sold car to a buddy who spent many hours replacing pan (have to drop subframe) bought jeep. it doesnt give a fuck about our shitty roads, have gone through two sets of front strut bushings in the past year though (wouldnt cover the second set under warranty, boo)

daily driving low cars in this city sucks, i dont think i ever will again. if i do it will have a cup system or air bags

[heavyD]

Is it me or is the asphalt they are using on the latest road construction not nearly as good as the pavement replaced? They just repaved Jean Laurie Blvd and it's already got more creases/ruts and bumps in a few areas than the old pavement and some of that new stuff they put on deerfoot is already rutting out.

[Cos]

Gonna be fun once we can get the bikes out

[Swank]

Originally posted by Cooked Rice
mcknight between deerfoot and barlow is in ruins.

:werd: It's damn brutal, every 2 seconds *wham wham*, makes me cringe.

[clem24]

Yeah it's pretty brutal this year. I can only assume the last DEEP freeze (what -25??) and then HUGE thaw just killed the roads, so I don't think it's anything to do with the actual materials used. John Laurie anywhere is pretty not flat and Crowchild is also getting pretty bumpy.

Been lucky that I haven't hit anything yet ** knock on wood **

[redblack]

i find the worse spots are in new communitys around the manhole covers where it's sunken down like 8 inches

[lilmira]

Yeah I notice pot holes popping up everywhere recently but the roads are still better than in Montreal. Those roads are terrible.

[toastgremlin]

There used to be a huge one on the 69th St/17th Ave intersection that looked like it was a trench someone cut out of the concrete during the construction and just left there on the side of the road. Problem is, it was after a small dip so unless you knew about it ahead of time it was hard to dodge.

A couple days ago, they finally bothered to fill it in. They still haven't patched the 2-3 inch deep one on 17th approaching Bow Trail where I managed to test my skid plate against the concrete when I fell into it.

No real horror stories though, knock on wood.

I noticed that the right lane on Deerfoot NB in a few spots is starting to get bad, and the onramp to Deerfoot SB from 32nd Ave NE has had potholes/broken concrete on it for so long that it's actually starting to get smoothed out from all the cars banging into it. Gonna be really hard to patch something like that up thanks to the idiotic single-lane design of that onramp though.

[revelations]

Originally posted by Cos
Gonna be fun once we can get the bikes out

Time to start memorizing the locations NOW, because they are only going to get worse.

Another good one (right by the city works yard too) is the DF SB onramp from 32nd ave NE.
Its like the whole pavement layer just disappeared in parts.

[revelations]

Originally posted by toastgremlin
I noticed that the right lane on Deerfoot NB in a few spots is starting to get bad, and the onramp to Deerfoot SB from 32nd Ave NE has had potholes/broken concrete on it for so long that it's actually starting to get smoothed out from all the cars banging into it. Gonna be really hard to patch something like that up thanks to the idiotic single-lane design of that onramp though.

Maybe I should read posts first .... :nut:

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

No real horror stories but im getting a Rallitek skidplate for my car before I lower it for sure...

[duaner]

I've never damaged a vehicle from hitting a pothole. But I agree that so far this year they seem to be far too numerous. Getting out of my neighborhood there is an intersection where I have to avoid them by the cluster.

I have to go left through the intersection and turn partially into the right lane to avoid a group of 3 or so at the crosswalk, then back into my lane to avoid one on the right about 20 ft later, then back partially into the right lane to avoid one on the left about 30 ft later. There is another cluster much worse than that on the same street but much further down, not on my commute--24th and Southland Dr SW.

[DC328is]

hit something and ripped my tired apart. was driving on a flat tire for 5 minutse before i heard any strange noises.

is there anywhere i can complain or something? city wont pay for the damage i know.

[revelations]

Originally posted by DC328is
hit something and ripped my tired apart. was driving on a flat tire for 5 minutse before i heard any strange noises.

is there anywhere i can complain or something? city wont pay for the damage i know.



CITY OF CALGARY

Pothole Repairs

Roads
About potholes

Potholes can develop on any of the 5,000 km of paved streets and lanes in Calgary. Potholes form when snow melts into cracks in the asphalt and then freezes, expanding in the cracks. Meanwhile, the frost in the ground pushes up, weakening the asphalt.

Roads annual pothole repair program is an essential part of keeping traffic moving safely and efficiently through the city. Roads anticipates that pothole repairs will be important this spring after the unusual winter Calgary experienced. It is too early to tell whether there will be more potholes this year than in previous years.
Locating potholes
You can help

To help Roads locate and make repairs quickly, you can call 3-1-1 to report potholes.
Incidental reporting

Roads inspects city roadways throughout the year to identify areas that need pavement repairs.

* Major roads are inspected twice a month
* collectors are inspected once a month
* Residential roads rely on 311 reports from residents and on incidental reporting by field crews.

When a pothole is identified, it is assessed and assigned a severity. The severity scale is rated from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most severe. The most severe potholes are scheduled to be repaired first.
Repairing potholes

Repairing potholes is a major part of Roads' continual maintenance of Calgary's roadways. In order to permanently fix potholes, Roads needs dry pavement and warm weather conditions. Pothole repair generally begins in April and goes throughout the summer months.

During our pothole repair program, crews are out working seven days a week. Each of our nine maintenance districts has a pothole crew with a prioritized repair list for that district. The majority of repairs are done during the day, but repairs on major roads are often done at night when there is less traffic.

Before the program begins, crews can apply a temporary patch to very severe potholes using a special mix that can be applied in cold or wet conditions.



http://www.calgary.ca/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_0_783_203_0_43/http%3B/content.calgary.ca/CCA/City+Hall/Business+Units/Roads/Road+Maintenance/Pothole+Repair.htm

[Godfuader]

Be thankful you guys don't drive in NYC. 85,000+ potholes repaired in the last month, and they continue to repair till April. Yes, they are at least repairing them...but gives you an approximation of how many potholes there are.

[toastgremlin]

Originally posted by Twin_Cam_Turbo
No real horror stories but im getting a Rallitek skidplate for my car before I lower it for sure... I have a Primitive skidplate which was a pretty good deal. I dunno if they have it available for the Legacy, but I can't see why not.

[AE92_TreunoSC]

I phone in any major potholes that can cause damage or dangerous swerving. I don't care if they get flooded with calls, its the only way the city will at least try to fix them.

Probably too late, the budget is too tight for pot holes :rolleyes:

[Hage69]

Originally posted by AE92_TreunoSC
I phone in any major potholes that can cause damage or dangerous swerving. I don't care if they get flooded with calls, its the only way the city will at least try to fix them.

[heavyD]

Originally posted by AE92_TreunoSC
Probably too late, the budget is too tight for pot holes :rolleyes:

Well we had one big snow storm last December than the whiners cried about snow removal and they upped that budget. Now we have an overstaffed sanding crew that has nothing to do as Calgary doesn't get that much snow compared to other Canadian cities. Even though we got no snowfall last night sanding trucks were out last night dropping gravel on roads with no snow. It's been happening all winter as the drivers have nothing to do so they drive around and drop gravel anywhere they can find an excuse to.:facepalm:

[Kloubek]

I dropped my pot down a hole once. Luckily, it was only worth around 40 bucks.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by Godfuader
Yes, they are at least repairing them...

Must be nice. Last week, when it was +7 out, going down Mcknight, I saw a city truck with 4-5 guys hanging out at one of the pot-trenches and thought "Awesome, they're getting a early start, because it's supposed to be warm for a few days!"

Nope, they didn't do a damned thing.

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

Originally posted by toastgremlin
I have a Primitive skidplate which was a pretty good deal. I dunno if they have it available for the Legacy, but I can't see why not.

How much was it? The rallitek one is $300USD shipped which is the cheapest I have found.

[88CRX]

Highfield Road south bound just coming up onto Blackfoot at bottom of the hill there is a deadly string of 4 or 5 pot holes on the right side.

Looks like they've been tossing gravel into them to fill but it's not really helping much.

[n1zm0]

The ramp from soutbound 14th st onto westbound glenmore, in the L/H lane l/h side, about 3 or 4 major potholes, i noticed the city has marked them now for about a month (for repair in the near future i guess), but anyways the last one is death, engulfed my whole tire, felt like someone quickly nascar pit style removed my tire then replaced it, minus the floor jack...

[K3RMiTdot]

i curbed one of my rims xD

[kvg]

Originally posted by revelations


Thats pretty awful. My EP3 hatch was lowered by the previous owner to something like 6
I agree my car has maybe 4" clearance on the undercarriage and on side streets after a snow fall when they turn to ice its hell.
:thumbsdow


Originally posted by heavyD
Is it me or is the asphalt they are using on the latest road construction not nearly as good as the pavement replaced?

I kept wondering the same thing, because since they repaved Elbow it has just crumbled in places. One spot they ave fixed 2 times already, and currently the pothole is 6" deep again:banghead:

[rpalm35]

There is a massive pot hole on one of the side roads coming from the university (I wish I could remember the street name). Basically the road connecting Brentwood LRT, and University drive. Anyways, there is a sewer drain that is recessed a good 4-5 inches below the road surface and in the middle of the road. It would be more than devastating to hit.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Originally posted by rpalm35
There is a massive pot hole on one of the side roads coming from the university (I wish I could remember the street name). Basically the road connecting Brentwood LRT, and University drive. Anyways, there is a sewer drain that is recessed a good 4-5 inches below the road surface and in the middle of the road. It would be more than devastating to hit.

Yeah, 31st St. The surface is terrible and I can't imagine driving on it in a lowered vehicle. That one depression always fills with water and turns into a huge puddle, which I can never seem to resist driving through. :rofl:

[clem24]

It's days like these when you need a Raptor.

[rpalm35]

Originally posted by BerserkerCatSplat


Yeah, 31st St. The surface is terrible and I can't imagine driving on it in a lowered vehicle. That one depression always fills with water and turns into a huge puddle, which I can never seem to resist driving through. :rofl:

And the road itself is bumpier than sin. I could honestly get air in my truck on some of the bumps..

In my Car its another story, I drive as slow as possible just to avoid the pot holes and scrapping the under-panelling on the bumps. But its the only road that doesn't have a ridiculous amount of traffic in the morning coming to school, so gotta bite the tongue and just drive carefully.

[voodoo]

this happened to me a few years ago on elbow drive. i bent a rim, blew a tire. i fixed it, took pics of the gaping hole on elbow, and sent a bill to the city.... 5 months later they actually paid me for the price of a new rim and tire.......

[DonJuan]

Originally posted by voodoo
this happened to me a few years ago on elbow drive. i bent a rim, blew a tire. i fixed it, took pics of the gaping hole on elbow, and sent a bill to the city.... 5 months later they actually paid me for the price of a new rim and tire.......

Have a buddy that just destroyed his rim and tire on Glenmore Trail. What is the procedure for making a claim?

[JZS_147]

Last year i was driving the celsior on blackfoot heading Northbound. Just before Ogden road, there was a massive pothole in the right lane on the right side of the lane. That section of street lights were turned off as well at this time. Hit it full on at ~70K. Pothole was maybe about 1.5' wide by 5-8" deep?

Damage:

19x10 Weds Kranze Cerebus II - bent ($340)
OEM Air shock wrecked and air bag leaking ($900)


If it wasn't a beefy Toyota, I'd probably have bent a control arm as well...maybe even more.

[JZS_147]

OH BTW, I called 311 right away and reported it. Got the run around that someone would call me back for 2 weeks, even after following up. I finally got a phone call saying the city doesn't cover damages caused by potholes.

The day after I was heading south on blackfoot and saw 2 cars on the other side of the road with damage due to the same pothole, it was fixed later that week.


Fuckers.

[simonseys]

The roads are HORRIBLE going down McKnight, there are so many deep creases and potholes in the road.. I normally try and avoid driving down there but yesterday I had no choice, almost got rear ended from trying to avoid a pot hole that could of potentially destroyed my front bumper :guns:

[bspot]

Originally posted by heavyD
Is it me or is the asphalt they are using on the latest road construction not nearly as good as the pavement replaced? They just repaved Jean Laurie Blvd and it's already got more creases/ruts and bumps in a few areas than the old pavement and some of that new stuff they put on deerfoot is already rutting out.

When they have to pave in winter it's totally different stuff, and it sucks. Usually it gets replaced when the weather warms up.

[voodoo]

Originally posted by JZS_147
OH BTW, I called 311 right away and reported it. Got the run around that someone would call me back for 2 weeks, even after following up. I finally got a phone call saying the city doesn't cover damages caused by potholes.

The day after I was heading south on blackfoot and saw 2 cars on the other side of the road with damage due to the same pothole, it was fixed later that week.


Fuckers.

thats what i did, i called 311, and they opened a ticket, and like a month later they told me it wasnt covered.... but then about 4 months after that, i got a cheque in the mail with a letter saying that that pot hole was caused to some company doing some construction and not refilling the hole properly. aparently i wasnt hte only one who got damaged from the pot hole. according to the letter, the city went after the constructin company and then i got my money...

[toastgremlin]

Originally posted by Twin_Cam_Turbo


How much was it? The rallitek one is $300USD shipped which is the cheapest I have found. Less than that, but I grouped up on shipping with a few other guys so my pricing is not realistic for a single buyer. Take a look at their website (http://get-primitive.com); their 3/8" for the 2005-09 Legacy GT seems to be $215, but that's before shipping.

[TE4MFaint]

This morning at approximately 10:35 am, a black Kia Sorento was heading northbound on South Ridge Drive SE near Vista Drive SE when the passenger tires became caught in a rut causing the vehicle to spin and enter the east ditch. While entering the ditch the Kia rolled onto its roof, the lone female driver was checked by EMS and released at scene. Total damage estimated at $10,000

Pot hole was hit first, then a rut, then this.
Love this city. Our roads are absolutely brutal.

[Proboscis]

City of Calgary should have a pot hole patrol. Some guy on a scooter with GPS.