UPDATE: Highway potholes in El Paso County filled after KRDO 13’s “Road Warrior” report last week
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) — Potholes on two local highways have been quickly patched by Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) crews, apparently the day after they were featured on a report by KRDO 13's The Road Warrior.
"I noticed it this past Wednesday, around 6 in the afternoon," said Sam Sprott, a viewer who alerted KRDO to a large pothole at the interchange of US 24 and Peterson Road. "I was very much surprised. Kudos to CDOT -- whoever filled it. Kudos to them, because they really came out and did a good job."
KRDO met Sprott on Tuesday at the pothole on the foot of the US 24 on-ramp, and nearly every passing driver seemed to be familiar with it and swerved around it; CDOT also filled several smaller potholes nearby.
More potholes reported by a KRDO viewer were also filled on southbound Highway 21 (Powers Boulevard), slightly north of the Fountain Boulevard intersection.
"Oh, sweet! That was fast!" said Michele McCarty, who contacted KRDO about the pothole.
Other potholes in the immediate area were not patched, however — meaning that more work in that area could be forthcoming.
Meanwhile, improvements are already planned for the US 24/Peterson intersection; Colorado Springs officials will announce details Wednesday about a project there that begins next month.
More challenging, however, is filling potholes in parking lots, on service roads or other private property.
In Tuesday's story, KRDO also reported on a mass of large, deep potholes north of the Chelton Road/Delta Drive intersection, on a road commonly used by drivers as a shortcut to local businesses.
On some maps, the road is labeled as a continuation of Delta, but city officials recently confirmed that it is privately owned and is the responsibility of that owner to repair the potholes.
"Wow, I did not know that," said Patti Smothers, who regularly uses the road. "I just figured it was a street, and that the city would be responsible for it. These (owners) need to get together, get some money together and get it done. But you have to get a lot of people before they're going to do something. It's just so bad that I thought someone would have already fixed it."
KRDO did a parcel search on the El Paso County Assesor's webpage and found that the property is owned by a local car wash; KRDO is trying to contact the owner.
KRDO also tried to contact the owners of property where potholes have developed and continue to worsen, both along South 8th Street: Behind the Sonic restaurant and in front of the Shell gas station.
KRDO is awaiting a response from those owners; in a 2016 report, Sonic repaired the potholes on its property after being contacted by KRDO but some of them have developed again and drivers have tried to fill it with nearby landscaping stones.
That same strategy was applied last fall by a driver, on the largest of a series of potholes on Democracy Point, in the Interquest area; after KRDO reported on the situation, the owner initially filled the potholes and later repaved the affected road segment.
A KRDO report also led to the patching of pesky potholes on an access road to and from the Walmart shopping center near the intersection of Powers and Woodmen Road; Walmart eventually repaved most of the road.
