Monterey County’s already shoddy roads are feeling further strain from this winter’s storms – leading to more potholes that are damaging cars and spurring resident complaints.
In the first four-plus months of the year, the county recorded 666 requests to patch up potholes on its roads – nearly three times as many as it did during the same period last year, according to county Public Works Director Randell Ishii.
“Generally, the formation of potholes increases in rainy weather [compared to] the rate of formation when the weather is dry,” Ishii says, citing the impact of this winter’s torrential atmospheric rivers. He adds that county maintenance crews have been “working extended hours and weekend shifts” to patch up as many storm-damaged roads as they can.
What’s more, there has been an uptick in legal claims filed against Monterey County by drivers seeking compensation for pothole-related damage to their vehicles. There have been 24 such claims filed in 2023, compared to only 11 in all of 2022, according to the County Counsel’s office.
Yet every one of those claims across the last two years were rejected, meaning the county didn’t have to pay a penny. As the County Counsel notes, the law requires that Monterey County be on notice of a condition before it can be liable for such damage. In each of the cases, apparently, it was not.
That’s to the frustration of residents like David Tadman of Soledad, who filed a claim after a pothole on River Road near Chualar damaged a tire and rim on his 2021 BMW Alpina, costing him roughly $4,500. Tadman says that stretch of River Road has been in poor condition for years, and that he’s taken up the issue with Supervisor Chris Lopez. (Lopez’s office confirmed his complaint.)
“I’m not very happy about that position,” Tadman says of the county’s denial of his claim. “I pay a lot of taxes and expect to have a good, safe, driving-condition road, and I don’t.”