Columbia pothole brings police response as road damage season continues
EDITOR'S NOTE: AI tools were used to help organize the information in this story.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Missouri Department of Transportation is urging drivers to travel with caution, with warmer weather causing potholes to pop up across roads.
MoDOT crews responded to the westbound Interstate 70 on-ramp at the Highway 63 connector twice over the weekend to repair potholes. The Columbia Police Department also responded to the scene on Saturday for two incidents, including multiple vehicles that were damaged by the deteriorating road.
Other details were not available because reports were not filed.
Jason Shafer, MoDOT Central District maintenance engineer, said potholes form when moisture gets into cracks in the road. The fluctuating temperatures common during the late-winter season cause the water to freeze and expand, then thaw, then freeze again, damaging the pavement.
"What causes a pothole is where you get water infiltration through the surface and then if it freezes. So like this time of the year, whenever it's nice and warm during the day and generally a little cooler at night, that's when the activity gets started," Shafer said.
Shafer said with the more mild winter weather the state saw this season, MoDOT hopes for fewer potholes.
MoDOT has about 300 pothole patching crews operating statewide across 34,000 miles of state-maintained roads. Shafer said MoDOT can sometimes have 150 crews out on the road at once in a day doing repairs. During the 2025 season, the agency repaired more than 650,000 potholes across the state. The total cost was approximately $20 million.
Shafer said MoDOT crews can use different methods to fill potholes.
"A lot of it depends upon the time of the year we're doing it, equipment availability," Shafer said. "We will still go out and do it by hand in some locations, although we prefer to stay off the roadway. We've also got an automated pothole patch machine that is truck-mounted, we drive right up to it."
Shafer also asks motorists to stay aware of MoDOT crews trying to fix the potholes.
The financial impact on drivers when potholes cause car damage can be significant, according to AAA. The organization found that the average cost for vehicle repairs related to pothole damage is $406.
John Ogan, with City of Columbia Public Works, said road repairs in Columbia are managed year-round by the city's Street Division. When reports of road damage are received, Ogan said, supervisors assign crews to perform the repairs. Workers typically use a cold asphalt mix to patch holes until a more permanent treatment can be applied.
Funding comes from the city's Street Maintenance Construction Materials line item. This budget is approximately $912,000. However, Ogan said this funding supports a number of different maintenance needs beyond pothole repairs, so it is difficult to isolate the specific cost of pothole patching alone.
The city uses a pavement preservation program to determine which roads require long-term improvements. Each road is evaluated annually and given a rating on a scale of 1 to 10. If a road is otherwise in good condition, patching may be the solution for an isolated issue. If the overall condition has declined, the street may be scheduled for chip seals, mill and overlay or full resurfacing.
When potholes are widespread across an area, crews may also use mobile asphalt ovens and move through neighborhoods repairing multiple potholes at once.
Ogan said Columbia has increased its resurfacing efforts over the past two years. Crews patched up about 125 lane miles of road in 2024 and 135 lane miles in 2025.
City officials expect to resurface a similar number of lane miles in 2026.
