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Rain opens some tire-eating potholes
By ED QUIOCO, Times Staff Writer
PALM HARBOR -- After more than a dozen motorists blew out tires and cracked rims on Curlew Road on Monday, officials closed the road so work crews could spend Tuesday patching 40 to 50 potholes. Monday's record rain seeped into cracks in the aging asphalt and caused the holes, according to the Florida Department of Transportation. They gave a pockmarked look to the 1800 block of Curlew Road between Belcher Road and County Road 1. For tow-truck drivers, that made for a hectic night. "People were popping tires left and right up there," said Evan Johnson, manager of Caladesi Towing, which is on Bayshore Boulevard in Dunedin. The company fixed or towed 16 to 20 cars from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday because of the potholes, Johnson said. Some vehicles suffered two flat tires on the same side. Others had rims so badly damaged that they needed to be replaced. "We had to keep a driver out there because every other call was (for a) flat tire on Curlew Road between Belcher and County Road 1," Johnson said. "Needless to say, we were pretty busy last night." Since the rain was coming down hard and it was dark and cloudy, drivers could not see the potholes until it was too late. Clearwater retiree Lois Ash and three friends were heading to a bridge card game about 7 p.m. Monday when her Toyota Camry hit a pothole. She said she was going about 45 mph when she suddenly saw something on the road. "It just came up very quickly," Ash said. "There was no avoiding it. And it was a hard thud." She and her passengers didn't know what they had hit, but they saw three or four cars parked on the side of the road. Then they went farther down the street and saw three or four other cars, also on the side of the road. "I kept wondering how our car had survived the blow, but it hadn't," Ash said. Her Camry also got a flat tire. DOT officials closed a portion of the road about 9:30 p.m. Monday. They hoped to re-open Tuesday night. The potholes range from 1 to 5 feet across, DOT spokeswoman Kris Carson said. The heavy rain sent water into the base of the road and washed away some of the limerock. Curlew Road from County Road 1 to Fisher Road is scheduled to be widened from two to four lanes in the summer of 2004. On Monday, Oldsmar got 4.46 inches of rain and Tarpon Springs got 5.2 inches, said Richard Rude, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Ruskin. The daily rainfall totals for Tampa and St. Petersburg broke decades-old records, he said. Residents called the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office to complain about the potholes Monday night. On Tuesday, many parents taking their children to the Bright Discoveries child care center, next to the potholes on Curlew Road, stayed away because of the barricades, said Osana DeCosmo, one of the center's owners. Usually, the facility has 35 children in the morning. "Our enrollment is down about half today because of the barricades," DeCosmo said Tuesday. She said she heard the loud bangs from at least two cars popping their tires when they hit the potholes. "We were fortunate there were no major accidents," DeCosmo said. -- Ed Quioco can be reached at 445-4185 or quioco@sptimes.com .
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From the Times North Pinellas desks |
