Potholes on Highways 33 and 20 damaging cars; ITD rushing to fill them in
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IDAHO FALLS — This week a significant number of eastern Idahoans reported deteriorating road conditions on Idaho Highway 33 and U.S. Highway 20 in and around Fremont County.
One man wrote to EastIdahoNews.com, saying that he hit a particularly deep pothole on Highway 33 that completely flattened his tire.
“I was traveling about 50 mph following other cars. I hit a pothole so bad that my tire went flat because it bent my rim so bad. While I was trying to put my spare tire on, within minutes, there were several other cars pulling over with their hazard lights on too,” Jared Edelmayer wrote in an email Monday.
Ted Austin travels between St. Anthony and Ashton on Highway 20 five days a week for work. He says the road has gotten so terrible, there isn’t room to avoid potholes.
“The roadway has deteriorated on that far right side in both lanes. So you’ve got massive potholes where your vehicle travels on the passenger side and the only way you can avoid it is either you’ve got to almost drive on the white solid line on the far right, or you’ve got to encroach on the oncoming traffic lane,” Austin said.
Thankfully, Idaho Transportation Department has an explanation and said crews are working to fix the problems.
ITD spokeswoman Megan Stark says road crews have had to wait for materials to fix the potholes on Highway 33 between Teton and Newdale and Highway 20 between Chester and Ashton.
“They intended to get the potholes done sooner, but we didn’t have material,” Stark said. “Therefore, the potholes got worse and worse and worse within a couple of days.”
Crews have been working at all hours to get the potholes fixed.
But while ITD waited for materials, some cars sustained some severe damage, and it’s not just rims and tires. Avery Van Wagner wrote in an email that her windshield was ruined when a car in the oncoming lane on Highway 33 hit a pothole and sent a piece of asphalt flying into her windshield.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the other driver got a flat from hitting the hole. It happened to me twice!” Van Wagner said in her email.
Stark said potholes and damaged roads are something that happens every year due to the freeze-thaw that comes with Idaho winters.
“When the weather warms up like it’s been doing, the cracks that are in that road and those wheel ruts, they basically just blow up,” Stark said. “I mean, it takes no time at all for those weaker spots to blow up. And we don’t know that they are going to until it happens.”
ITD managers have plans to fix sections of both Highway 20 and Highway 33 in the next few years, but they are figuring out exactly how much of the highways their budget will allow them to fix, Stark said. She said crews are going to continue to work on both highways until all the potholes are filled in.
“Our crews will be, intermittently with weather and plowing and winter maintenance projects, they will be doing what they can to keep up on the potholes as they come,” Stark said.