At least 12 vehicles damaged Wednesday due to pothole on I-25 in south Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- At least 12 vehicles were damaged due to a pothole on northbound Interstate 25, near the South Academy Boulevard (Exit 135), according to the Colorado State Patrol (CSP).
On Wednesday, CSP confirmed that the right lane was blocked as a Colorado Department of Transportation crew (CDOT)worked to repair the pothole.
CDOT spokeswoman Michelle Peulen said that the agency closed the lane at 6:15 a.m. and reopened it by 8 a.m.; she also said that cold, wet weather and deteriorating pavement contributed to the pothole's development.
"We don't have (other) emergency pothole repairs scheduled at this time, but the team is out looking for potholes and they were doing some repair work at the same time that they did the significant one from this morning," she said.
Troopers assisted drivers impacted by the situation and there were no injuries reported.
The pothole was in a narrow corridor that is within a road construction work zone, and the pavement there is already rough and bumpy.
Drivers said that if they had hit the pothole during morning rush hour, instead of between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., there would have been crashes, injuries and an even bigger mess on the highway.
Phond Honpompath said he heard his tires pop when he hit the pothole.
"I don't know what it was," he said. "It sounded like I had hit something. I know that I had hit something. I felt it."
His wife, Kaisone, came to his aid.
"I had one more hour before getting up to go to work." she explained. "He told me to come get him and I asked him what was wrong. It surprised me this morning because who's going to call me up early this morning? It has to be an emergency or something, you know."
Another driver -- who came to pick up his wife -- said the reported number of damaged vehicles sounds low.
"It seemed to me that there were 50 cars on the side of the road," said Clifton Robinson, "and they all had flats."
Each vehicle had one or two flat tires on the front and rear passenger side.
While some drivers had their vehicles towed, others waited for roadside assistance; the Honpompaths brought their own equipment to repair their two flat tires.
The couple received another surprise, finding that their car doors wouldn't electronically open -- and forcing them to crawl through the trunk, to get inside, start the car and drive it away.
Some of the affected drivers said that insurance doesn't cover their damages, but CDOT said that those victims can call 719-800-2162 to file a claim with the contractor of the road project.
In that same area, crews are replacing the I-25 overpass on South Academy, and are building a temporary road to shift traffic for replacing asphalt with concrete on an eight-mile stretch south through Fountain.
The traffic shift, scheduled to start Wednesday night, will now start Friday night because of the pothole trouble.
