Out of nearly 6,000 pothole damage claims submitted to the city since January 2014, two resulted in payment, according to city records.

Central Ohio drivers are experiencing more potholes than they are used to following a winter that had wild swings between bitter cold and spring-like temperatures.

Fortunately, Columbus has a process to reimburse drivers when their cars are damaged by potholes on roads that are the city's responsibility. Unfortunately, Columbus nearly always denies those claims.

Out of nearly 6,000 pothole damage claims submitted to the city since January 2014, only two resulted in payment, according to city records.

Claims are nearly always rejected over a rule that gives Columbus road repair crews time to fix road damage before paying a claim. If the road is repaired within three days of a pothole being reported, the city isn't liable, said Michael Liggett, spokesman for the Columbus Department of Public Service.

The claims process is designed to reimburse drivers only when the city has been negligent in its road maintenance, Liggett said. Three days gives the city a reasonable amount of time to ensure the road damage is real, and then to fix the pothole, he added.

In comparison, the Ohio Court of Claims — which handles claims made on roads managed by the Ohio Department of Transportation, such as state routes and interstate highways — has no such rule and consequently has a much-higher payment rate. The court paid roughly two-thirds of its 350 car damage claims in 2016 and roughly a third of the 376 claims in 2017, the most-recent years for which figures were available.



City officials say Columbus is following best practices, but some drivers consider the rule a loophole that gives the city an easy out.

Juanita Jenkins, 67, of the Far South Side, submitted a claim to the city after she blew a tire on her newly purchased 2016 Ford Escape on John Glenn Avenue in 2017 just blocks from her home. Road crews patched the pothole the next day and denied her claim, records show.

"It was a brand new car. I only had it two days," Jenkins said.

She felt that Columbus was avoiding its responsibilities by giving itself time to repair the road before considering her claim.

"The city of Columbus should have paid," Jenkins said. "It shouldn't have come out of my pocket."

Doug Stein, 68, of Westerville, said he didn't think it was worth his time to even submit a claim because the process is so complicated. Drivers must submit a packet of information, including two estimates for the cost of the damage.

"That was the frustrating part, all the hoops you have to jump through," Stein said. "You don’t have the luxury of time when you’ve got a gashed tire and have a temporary spare on it."

Cold weather is hard on roads, but wild swings in the temperature that were a staple of this winter's weather patterns exacerbated the problem. Water seeped into cracks when it rained and then expanded when it froze, making small cracks or holes even larger.

The most-recent winter was a brutal one for the roadways of central Ohio. The Ohio Department of Transportation used 2,274 tons of asphalt to patch road damage between Nov. 1, 2018, and March 31 of this year. ODOT used 940 tons during the same period in the winter of 2017-2018, and 494 tons in that time period for the 2016-2017 winter.

pcooley@dispatch.com

@PatrickACooley