Pothole problems popping up

TRENTON (WPVI) -- Potholes are a common problem that pop up when the weather starts to warm following months of wintry weather.

Rose Lowe of Trenton lives near the 300 block of South Clinton Avenue in Trenton which looks like the surface of the moon. It's a block full of craters with some potholes more than 6 inches deep.

"I've seen an axle busted. I've seen a tow truck here maybe four or five times this year towing somebody's car cause they just tore it up," Lowe said.

"The noise from the cars hitting the potholes, the rattling noise, I can't even sleep at night," neighbor Emmanuel Rooks said.

Drivers are bouncing in their seats, making it feel more like a ride on a bucking bronco than a city street.

"It's like a roller coaster and you got to go slow so it doesn't mess up the car, it's horrible, it literally could bust your tires," neighbor Dennis Smith said.

At Trenton Auto & Tire they've got a collection of ripped tires and bent rims from customers who've hit potholes.

"It creates a lot of wear and tear into these cars which you don't realize. Just a simple pothole, but now there's so many, hit multiple potholes which will create more damage to your car," Al Ushtelenca of Trenton Auto & Tire said.

Pothole damage is keeping roadside service technicians busy. We caught up with Orlando Flores on Carter Road in Princeton where he was changing a flat.

"When they plow, it digs up the asphalt and just leaves big craters in the roads. There's been a lot of blowouts lately due to the potholes," Orlando Flores of Lakeside Auto Service said.

After a series of flat tires cause by potholes near Province Line and Cherry Valley roads in Princeton Wednesday morning, local police tweeted out a message urging drivers to use extreme caution.

A public works crew from Trenton arrived in the afternoon to start laying down what's called cold patch in some of the bigger potholes on South Clinton Avenue. It's an attempt to make the drive a little less rocky.

"It might be temporary, but if it can last a day or two until we can get it fixed permanently we'll do that," worker Andre Borges said.

TO REPORT A POTHOLE ON A COUNTY ROAD:

http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/commuter/potholecounty.shtm

TO REPORT A POTHOLE ON A STATE HIGHWAY:

http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/commuter/potholeform.shtm