PHOENIX, AZ — Crews are being sent out to patch up the potholes on Thomas Road between 35th and 43rd avenues after ABC15 brought a viewer's safety concerns to the City of Phoenix.
Albert Ramirez sent an email to ABC15 Operation Safe Road citing concerns about the potholes that line both sides of the street, calling the road “extremely dangerous.” He said he reached out to the city multiple times over the years, but nothing was ever done, so he decided to contact ABC15 Operation Safe Roads.
“I remember earlier last year, probably the beginning of January, I started seeing a lot more potholes and the little crevices in the street started getting deeper,” Ramirez said, adding that he even popped his car tire driving down the road from one of the potholes.
“It's so bad that if you have a tire that it's a bad condition, the chances of you damaging it more having it pop on you, what it did to me is, you know, very likely,” Ramirez said.
ABC15 spoke to other drivers who all said the same thing — something needs to be done to fix the road.
“The street tears it up,” said Keisha, who lives in the neighborhood adjacent to the street. “I have 22-inch rims on one of my cars that is custom, it tore up the rim and the tire.”
Keisha said she also reached out to the city, but nothing has been done.
“It’s gotten really bad over the past six months or so and I’ve contacted the city several times and they’ve done nothing about it,” Keisha said.
ABC15 called the City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department for answers.
“Eastbound fast lane and the westbound centerline, they’re going to do some milling and some re-asphalt — basically they’ll patch it there, so that’s scheduled to start on April 17th and that’ll last probably about a week — six to seven days,” Gregg Bach, with the City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department said.
Bach added that a full replacement of the damaged section of the road is scheduled to be replaced sometime in the fiscal year 2026 or 2027.