CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — In life, people will face some bumps on the road, but a lot of Corpus Christi residents literally go through those bumps when driving. The streets are notorious for aggravating drivers with a citywide pothole problem.
One particular area has been raising some red flags because some residents claim it's been a growing problem, and they don't believe the city is taking action to mend it. The one big issue is on Highland Avenue. If you drive through the road there, right before you hit Hibiscus Street, you'll go over a road bump, and that's where a pothole formed. It's about a foot away from the hump.
Suzanna Rodriguez lived in the neighborhood for about a year. She said she remembered when the pothole was small. However, she claims it has since grown in size.
"We'll hear people just bump into it," she said. "Sometimes we have to break, sometimes we'll just hit it, and you know the bottom of the car will hit the street itself, and you know it's a problem."
After community expressed interest, KRIS 6 News reached out to the City of Corpus Christi about the issue, and crews from the Public Works Department showed up to the site Thursday morning.
Ernie De La Garza, the director of the Public Works Department, said, "We measured and it's about a five-foot by five-foot section of roadway that we're repairing and it's on the downstream end of a speed hump, so it's probably taken a beating after a couple of buses go by, probably also caused the issue was trash trucks."
The public works director said no reports had been made about the specific pothole prior to KRIS 6 News inquiry. However, they do plan on mending the portion of the street. De La Garza said the timeframe would depend on scheduling and estimates it can take a few days. After Thursday's site visit, crews made a temporary fix.
After further review, we see that it needs base work. We'll do the line locates and make sure there's no gas lines in the area, and then we'll come back with a more permanent fix." said the public works director.
De La Gara said the city doesn't get as many pothole complaints when the weather is dry. Public Works has six teams of two to three people who provide repair services.
"They can respond pretty quickly, a day's notice is what they usually do. Then obviously, we would like them to provide pothole repairs with hot mix rather than the cold patch material," he added.
If you want to report a pothole or other street pavement problem you can call the city's call center at 311 then a work order will be created. The city also has an infrastructure management plan which determines which roads they will work on. Roadway conditions are considered.
