One word was on everybody’s lips last week – potholes.

And that word was usually followed by a few four-letter ones that won’t be repeated in this article.

Potholes were popping up everywhere, especially along M-24, damaging vehicles left and right, and sending frustrated drivers to local repair shops.

“We’ve been getting a bent wheel a day, I would say,” said Don Blanchard, co-owner of Complete Auto Repair at 543 S. Lapeer Rd. in Oxford Township. “A few people have had suspension damage. I’ve got a car in here right now where the strut got damaged by a pothole.”

“It’s been busier than usual. It’s pretty bad,” said Frank Ludwig, manager of Fix N Go Auto Center at 1661 N. Lapeer Rd. “Most of them are bent rims.”

“It’s mostly bent wheels and blown tires,” said Larry Hopkins, owner of Hopkins Tire and Auto Repair at 1045 S. Lapeer Rd., near the intersection of M-24 and Drahner Rd.

According to Hopkins, when he came in on the morning of Feb. 21, there were three vehicles in his lot, plus “another three to five” parked at the Mobil gas station and Mario’s Golden Nugget restaurant on either side of his shop. All of them were “disabled from holes on Lapeer Rd.,” he said.

Given the size of some of these potholes, Hopkins wasn’t surprised by all the damage.

“There’s one around the corner from me (on E. Drahner Rd. that) you could lose a small dog in,” he said.

Craig Bryson, spokesman for the Road Commission for Oakland County, indicated crews are doing their best to keep up with the crumbling roadways.

“We’ve been patching every day,” he said. “We’ve been working overtime into the evenings (and) on weekends . . . We’ve been doing everything we can.”

To address the situation, some road commission crews will continue patching potholes until about 7 p.m. while others will begin their shift as early as 3 or 4 a.m. to work on roads that are lighted.

Part-time, temporary winter employees, originally hired to help with plowing and salting the roads, will be kept on for an extended period into the spring in order to continue patching efforts. The hours for these part-timers will also be extended.

But as much manpower as the road commission throws at the pothole problem, it’s always an uphill battle against Mother Nature.

Last week, Bryson said the big problem was the rain.

“While it was raining, I would say we were treading water. For every pothole we patched, another one would show up,” he explained.

When things “dried out” on Feb. 22, he said crews “made some pretty good headway,” but they saw more potholes pop up the next day when the rain returned.

“It’s two steps forward, one step back,” Bryson said.

So, why are the potholes so bad?

There are two reasons, according to Bryson.

One is the elements.

“The weather this year has been just hell,” he said. “The freeze-thaw cycle’s been going back and forth from (temperatures in the) single-digits to 50 degrees . . . We had 10 inches of snow that melted, followed by 3 inches of rain. Temperatures have been going up to the 50s and 60s (during the day) and back below freezing at night. Those weather conditions are just ideal for the creation of potholes.”

The other is the lack of road funding.

“We’ve been saying for 20 years that this was going to happen, that the roads are going to deteriorate because of inadequate funding,” Bryson said.

Bryson pointed out that in 2007, 70 percent of the county’s paved roads were “either in good or fair condition,” while 30 percent were rated as “poor.”

In 2017, he reported 34 percent of the paved roads were found to be in good or fair condition and 66 were in poor shape.

“It pretty much flipped from where it was 10 years previously,” Bryson said. “And that means that there are twice as many roads in poor condition, which are the ones that experience the severe potholes. That’s simply because we haven’t had enough funding to repair and resurface the roads as they’ve needed it for the last 15-20 years.”

Fortunately, Bryson said the road commission “had almost a record construction season” last year.

“We resurfaced about 45 miles of road and those were some of the worst roads for potholes, so had we not (done that) last year, it would be even worse this year,” he explained.

Oakland County could be receiving an additional $7 million this year for road repairs and maintenance if the Michigan Senate follows the Michigan House’s lead and approves a bill designed to provide a one-time disbursement of $175 million in additional road and transportation funding.

The state House unanimously approved the bill (H.B. 4321) on Feb. 21. Under this, all of Michigan’s 83 counties and 533 cities and villages would get a piece of the pie, which is made up of money left over from a previous state budget cycle. County road commissions would receive a combined $68.4 million.

The road commission has a variety of ways people can report potholes.

For the serious ones – the potholes causing flat tires and vehicular damage – Bryson encourages folks to call 1-877-858-4804, “so we can get on those immediately.”

Others can be reported via the app the RCOC offers. It’s free and can be downloaded through the Google and Apple app stores.

“I think it’s the easiest and quickest way for them to do it,” Bryson said. “The quicker we can get the information, the quicker we can respond. The easier it is for people to report, hopefully, the more frequently they will (do it).”

Since adding the pothole-reporting option to its app last month, Bryson said road commission has received 408 reports that way.

Potholes can also be reported on the road commission’s website www.rcocweb.org and by sending an e-mail to dcsmail@rcoc.org.

To help cope with the pothole situation, motorists are being advised to do two things.

The first is adjust their speed.

“Unfortunately, for the time being, we are encouraging people to just slow down, especially if you see puddles,” Bryson said. “We don’t know what’s underneath those puddles, so please take it slow.”

“Drive slower than usual this time of year. Be vigilant,” Ludwig said.

The other has to do with tires.

“Make sure your tire pressures are set correctly,” Blanchard said. “An under-inflated tire won’t take a pothole hit as well as a correctly inflated one will.”

Ludwig agreed.

“It will absorb more impact if it’s properly inflated,” he said. “If it’s low, it will flex more.”

When pressure is low, Hopkins explained, “The tire and the wheel pinch the sidewall when you (hit) a pothole and that’s what cuts the sidewall or puts an impact break on it.”

Sure, things look bad right now on local roads, but it’s not all doom and gloom.

“The good news is in another week or two, the ground will be thawed, which means the water can drain, then the ground under the roads will stabilize and that will greatly reduce the problem,” Bryson said. “We’ll be back to a much more normal situation (then). This is just a temporary situation, but while it’s here, it’s no fun.”