SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — From main roads to state routes and interstates, potholes are almost everywhere you drive in Shelby County.
Julie Pereira drives a similar route every day involving I-40. As the number of potholes increases, so do her encounters with them.
“My car hit a pothole, it made a pretty loud boom, and I was a little bit scared that maybe I had popped a tire,” Pereira said.
Thankfully, she did not pop a tire. Instead, she saw more potholes as she kept driving, so she looked up how to report them.
“The very first thing that popped up was the TDOT website for how to report a pothole, and the whole process took me about 3 minutes,” Pereira said.
Then, she shared the location of the potholes to Facebook so anyone who popped a tire on those roads could work with the state for a reimbursement, which you can only get if the pothole was already reported.
Her neighbor whose tires took a hit from the potholes was quoted $2,000 to replace them.
"Same freeway: Interstate 40. Really did a number on his vehicle," Pereira said.
TDOT’s Nichole Lawrence said they sometimes rely on motorists to let them know where potholes are.
“That helps us notify locations because we can’t be at every location every minute of every day," Lawrence said.
Pereira wasn’t the only one using Facebook to get the message out about the potholes. Another person shared information about a different pothole, and Representative Antonio Parkinson stepped in to help, contacting TDOT immediately.
“Several people had hit the same pothole and had some damage to their vehicles, so I thought it was urgent and needed immediate attention,” Parkinson said. “And when I reached out to TDOT, they immediately got on it and started working to repair the pothole.”
People on Facebook were very grateful for the posts about where potholes have been reported.
“I did my due diligence and other people in my community can benefit from it,” Pereira said.
If you see a pothole on Memphis city roads, you can contact the city at 311, and if you see one on state routes or interstates, you can contact 833-TDOTFIX.
As of this year, the City of Memphis said crews have filled more than 8 thousand potholes.