Longtime potholes, cracks finally repaired around two 8th Street businesses in Colorado Springs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — The Texas Roadhouse is a popular and busy restaurant, one that's not easy to get into because of traffic and limited parking.

But earlier this week, access was more difficult for a good reason, welcomed by customers, delivery drivers, and business owners.

A paving crew arrived Monday to repair worsening cracks and potholes on a service drive connecting 8th Street to a Shell convenience store and the Texas Roadhouse.

Cracks in the concrete pavement had existed for years, and potholes were growing wider and deeper at the point where the concrete met the restaurant's asphalt parking lot.

KRDO 13's The Road Warrior had previously tried contacting the corporate offices of both businesses and never got a response.

However, many drivers were happy to see the paving crew at work on the situation.

A crew supervisor told The Road Warrior that the repair is only temporary; workers used a tar-like substance to seal the cracks, covered the concrete with asphalt, and filled two large potholes, as well.

Curiously, only half of the concrete service drive was paved, even though records at the El Paso County Assessor's Office list Shell as the owner of the entire driveway.

According to the supervisor, it's possible that Texas Roadhouse, or a recently closed Sonic restaurant nearby, owns the northern half of the service drive.

But Texas Roadhouse's operations manager, Dylan Schreiner, said that potholes have been a constant issue in the private property area.

The restaurant has hired paving contractors twice this year to patch potholes on its property, but the fixes have not held for long.

Schreiner said that the restaurant has had talks with Shell about doing more long-term pothole prevention, particularly in light of the current improvement project on 8th Street and Shell's current work to upgrade its fuel pumps and tanks.

Over the past ten years, The Road Warrior also reported on constant pothole issues at the Sonic; the recent round of potholes in the parking lot and on an access road were filled before the restaurant closed a few months ago.

It's unclear what will happen to the Sonic property, but a new apartment complex reportedly will be built soon at the nearby site of the recently closed locations of Hobby Lobby and Office Depot.

The parking lot in front of those vacant buildings remains full of potholes.