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Potholes are sneaky and dangerous; the worst offer the motorist a choice that isn't a choice: Crash down into it or swerve into traffic in an adjacent lane. If we know where they are, we can avoid them; if we publish their locations, we can get them fixed.

We've created a slideshow to display your photos of the worst of Rhode Island's Killer Potholes. Use this link to upload your digital photos (.jpgs are best). Large photos will be automatically resized to 350 pixels deep and no more than 470 pixels wide, so get fairly close to the pothole or it could display as just a smudge in a street scene. If it's in front of a landmark we'd recognize -- a store or public building -- try to get that in the background, so we can slow down when we're there.

On the upload form, be sure to tell us where the pothole is: City or town, and nearest address or intersection. We may do more with your report, such as ask you to let us know if they're fixed, so we do ask for a working email address for you, whoever you are, but your name and address are optional.

Potholes are everywhere there's a winter, but for this one, we're only looking for Rhode Island potholes, please.

How to photograph a pothole: A hole can be hard to convey. Photographer Tim Barmann suggests shooting at dawn or at sunset, when the shadows will be long.

There's no way to tell how big a pothole in asphalt might be. Looking back at our archives, over the years Journal photographers have usually included a car or its wheel in their photos, something of a known size to compare it to. News designer Babette Augustin suggests placing a ruler in the shot, to show how deep or wide the pothole is. (If it's filled with water, this may be essential.)

Tell the road crews about it: State DOT: Report a pothole at 222-2378 , 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. For questions about damage resulting from a pothole, please call 734-4817.

Providence: Office of Neighborhood Services, 421-2489
Pawtucket: Highway department at 728-0500 ex. 284 or 302
Cranston: Public Works, 942-9200, Mon-Fri, 7 a.m.-3 p.m.
Warwick: Highway Department, 738-2000 ext. 6518

In other cities and towns, call your city or town hall, or local police, to report a killer pothole.

Driving tips: Ford Motor Company, which calls them "chuckholes," advises in a press release,

-- Don't swerve to avoid potholes. Swerving can create a situation where the front wheel and tire on the car can impact the edge of the pothole at an obtuse angle, which might do more damage than hitting it squarely.

It might also send you into the next lane.

-- Don't brake just because you see a pothole: heavy braking compresses the front suspension of the car and will have a tendency to force the tire and wheel down into the pothole, instead of gliding over

Let's get the worst of them noticed and fixed. Stop and take a picture of the most insidious pothole on your street or on your commute, and upload it to the Killer Potholes slideshow.

The source of "How Potholes Form" is the Virginia Department of Transportation.

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5 Comments

Silas Scarborough said:

If you've got those sexy low-profile tires on your car, be ready to replace on if you drive it into a pothole. At about $200 per tire, driving one of those cars in Rhode Island can be very expensive. I figure it cost me somewhere between $1000 and $2000, not counting the broken wheels.

An easy fix is to take the 17" wheels off the car and use 16" wheels instead. That will allow for a higher-profile tire that will be much more resilient. It's expensive to switch but not as bad as replacing two tires in the same day and I have done that.

Link | February 23, 2009 8:09 AM
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Leroy Ratliff said:

How Do you know whether it is a pothole or just where they have put down new asphalt. When they put down new asphalt, it is so rough it is like hitting a bunch of potholes. It is useless to spend more money on the roads around here as long as you have the same companies working on them.

Link | February 23, 2009 8:38 AM
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Mike said:

The last 200 yards on RI RT116 south, just before it intersects with RI117, there are a series of very serious potholes. These are front-end destroyers

Link | February 23, 2009 8:45 AM
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Mary said:

Question: Maine gets worse weather than Rhode Island does......Why are there no pot holes in Maine......plus they plow and don't complain.......and What is Rhode Island going to do with the extra money it will get? Care to venture a quess.......

Link | February 23, 2009 9:12 AM
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Toni DeMaiio said:

Take a ride down Weeden street in Providence behind the blue grotto restaurant. The street is loaded with potholes. It is absolute disgrace.

Link | February 23, 2009 1:07 PM
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