Pothole problems are reaching a whole new level on I-40. Our Operation Safe Roads team has been leading the charge, demanding accountability from the state.
Now, we are hearing from a truck driver who hit a pothole while carrying explosives on the interstate through northern Arizona. It made him veer into another lane. He tells us it was a close call that could have ended in disaster.
"Six and a half, seven years later... you still got the potholes and they're worse," says truck driver Robert Pike. "That's a failure of leadership or incompetence."
I-40 is a major east-west freight corridor. Truck drivers from all over the country travel through Arizona each day.
ABC15 asked Pike how he would compare the stretch of I-40 between Kingman and Flagstaff to other areas he's driven through.
"Hands down the worst road that I've ever dealt with," says Pike. "The potholes are big, they're deep, and they're sporadic."
Pike reached out to our Operation Safe Roads team from Oklahoma after facing a close-call on Monday night. He was carrying explosives inside his truck.
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"We haul hazmat, anywhere from 1.1 to 1.4 explosives," says Pike.
Pike described the pothole as a wide, bumpy crater.
"The truck hit it on the left side, the steer tire went in and it literally felt like the truck bounced off the ground," he said. "It pulled me about two and a half feet onto the other lane of traffic."
Fortunately, no other drivers were in his path.
"It could be catastrophic and what... because they don't want to fix the roads?" says Pike.
The Arizona Trucking Association tells us this has been an issue for quite some time.
"My members believe that our stretch of I-40, between those two jurisdictions, is the worst stretch of I-40 in the country," says Tony Bradley, president of the Arizona Trucking Association.
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After we pressed for answers, ADOT outlined their plans this week to improve pavement conditions on several highways damaged by winter weather.
They hope to secure funding for "mill and fill" repairs. It's an interim fix they say would likely last about five years.
But to Pike, that's not enough.
"Now, I'm no structural engineer but, if you got trucks that are 80,000 pounds - all day long, all night long - going over those bumps, it's not gonna last five years," says Pike.