HOUSTON -- Cruise along Allen Parkway into downtown, and watch out. The potholes are back.
"It just burst a tire," said Francisco Barrientes.
The impact to his SUV was so bad it required a tow -- adding $162 on top of his repair bill.
"They stink, to say the least," Barrientes said.
With last week's heavy rains, all the water had nowhere to go. But it had to go somewhere —finding every crack and crevice in the roads.
"It weakens the asphalt, it weakens the concrete and over time, it just causes it to break apart," said Eric Dargan, Deputy Director of the Houston Department of Public Works.
Dargan said city patch crews were sidelined all last week and now must play catch-up.
"The infrastructure will continue to fail or degrade a little bit faster with the amount of rain that we received last week," Dargan said.
That means new potholes are forming, and existing ones are getting bigger.
"It's going to damage your car, absolutely," said driver Tina Ruiz.
She dodges a monster crater on her way to lunch near Hobby Airport.
"If you have another car coming this way, you've got to wait, stop. You can't pass," Ruiz said.
Since KHOU launched the Pothole Patrol in February, the city has filled 6,383 larger-than-pizza size potholes. But it also has received 4,938 new work orders during the same time, according to Dargan.
"We're just not making headway as fast as we'd like," Dargan said. "Very frustrating."
About the only ones happy to see any of it are the ones making money from the hazards on the road.
"Bad for people, but good for us," said wrecker driver Renato Jimenez.
