Potholes: everyone hates them.
Sometimes they appear unexpectedly or deepen over time. THV11's Winnie Wright spoke with a Little Rock Attorney Wednesday, whose office used information from the city to create a map of areas plagued by potholes, with some advice for drivers.
Did you know The City of Little Rock has more potholes north of the interstate than south? Or that the east part of town has more potholes than the west part? That's according to Little Rock 311. In 2016, 1,627 potholes were reported to them.
Alan LeVar, a personal injury attorney, compiled those numbers, put them on a map, and mapped the trends.
"We were surprised at the number of potholes,” he said. "There were so many, we thought, visualizing it would help people appreciate that even with the City being responsive and fixing potholes, they're still going to continue to be a problem."
And the City does respond. Eric Petty, from Little Rock Public Works invited us to come along, as crews filled a pothole in South Little Rock Wednesday afternoon. He says, each 311 report is checked out by a city crew. The average response time is about three to three and a half days.
"Our goal is to make sure and have them done by five days, but sometimes after a big snow or ice event, or heavy rain storm, it may take a little bit longer,” Petty said, explaining when crews are called out to work on a pothole, they'll actually kind of scout the area and see if there are any others that need to be repaired.
That's how we ended up at 38th and Katherine, A crew was working right around the corner on another pot hole.
"This year, we are at about 1,400, so we are a little bit less this year. But if we get some wet weather, cold weather, we could still end up with a lot of potholes coming up,” he told us.
In 2015, a particularly cold and wet year, City crews responded to nearly 3,000 potholes. According to the data: West Markham, North Rodney Parham, and South University had the most reported potholes.
Hillcrest had the most per neighborhood, followed by Midtown and John Barrow. LeVar says, he hopes, being able to visualize where the pothole problems occur, can help drivers protect themselves and their vehicles.
"Be mindful of all the potential dangers. Keep your speed low. Keep your car under control. It's also basic defensive driving technique. You want to be aware of everything that's around you,” the attorney said, adding he was also inspired to create the map, because his office often gets calls about car damage or even injury from potholes.
He says there's very little his office can do, once an accident has occurred, because they’d have to prove the roadway operator was negligent by not filling the hole, so they'd like people to be proactive and call Little Rock 311.
For more information and a full interactive map, click here.