You’ve likely driven over them on our local roads.
It doesn’t take long to find a pothole or pavement problem on a Jacksonville road.
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Potholes aren’t just pesky; they can be pricey, especially when they damage your car or potentially cause an injury.
When Action News Jax’s Chandler Morgan visited a local Brentwood resident, we saw a pothole pavement problem right at the end of her street.
Judy Clayton lives near the intersection of Perry Street and Golfair Boulevard.
“It just kept traumatizing me over and over again,” Clayton said.
She recalled the night she says a pothole literally flipped her world upside down.
“At night as I’m crossing the pedestrian walkway, I get halfway across the street, and my chair goes over on its right side, and I find myself going in a hole,” she said.
“My fear was ‘I’m gonna get run over,’” she added.
Clayton said that happened back in 2023. She said she lost her power chair during that instance, which is her only mode of transportation.
“I’m finding out that that was only the beginning because it stayed an eyesore for over a year,” she said.
Action News Jax received several emails from people complaining about potholes, especially along New Berlin Road.
When we requested pothole data from the City of Jacksonville, it shows that since January 2023, Collins Road and New Berlin Road both top the list for the most reported potholes.
Old Middleburg Road, Park Street and Old St. Augustine Road rounded out the top five.
Top 5 Most Reported Streets (regardless of status):
- Collins Road — approx. 90 reports
- New Berlin Road — approx. 90 reports
- Old Middleburg Road S. — approx. 50 reports
- Park Street — approx. 50 reports
- Old St Augustine Road — approx. 40 reports
That data also shows the status of pothole reports, listing them as canceled, in progress or closed.
Of those top five roads, roughly two in five pothole reports ended up canceled rather than completed.
We looked up Clayton’s street in that data. It shows at least two separate reports of potholes made to the city dating back to February 2023 at the corner of her street. Both of those reports were eventually closed.
“When it rains, the water settles and it sinks further and further,” Clayton said.
Clayton said she got the runaround from different agencies when she tried to report her ongoing street issue.
“I’m speaking to people and they’re making me feel as though I am non-existent,” she said.
So Judy hired a lawyer with Farah & Farah.
Attorney Eddie Farah said, similar to Clayton’s case, the city often has previous awareness of the issue.
“The city obviously knew about it because they repaired it. They just did an inadequate or improper repair,” Farah said.
Farah suggests always reporting potholes to the responsible agency.
“If other people didn’t complain, it’s going to be difficult to prove the city knew or should have known about it,” he said.
According to the city’s data, the average turnaround time from when a pothole report was received was about two weeks. But we found several reports that took more than 250 days.
One pothole report on Beauclerc Wood Lane North took almost a year to close.
“It’s more than just the physical — people who are injured. It is also the property damage, because you know, cars get damaged by these pothole problems,” Farah said.
We requested documents from the City of Jacksonville’s Public Works. Those show that since 2023 through Fall 2025, the city has spent more than $2.2 million on potholes.
| year | date range | labor | equipment | materials | total expenses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY23 | Oct 2022-Sept 2023 | $429,656.02 | $ 92,151.52 | $110,465.93 | $ 632,273.47 |
| FY24 | Oct 2023-Sept 2024 | $513,936.97 | $182,301.70 | $161,764.47 | $ 858,003.14 |
| FY24 | Oct 2024-Sept 2025 | $518,755.43 | $ 45,641.13 | $177,193.82 | $ 741,590.38 |
(Note: As provided by COJ, a summary from Public Works is above regarding pothole expenditures. Per that department, there is no budget line item for potholes perse, as those funds come from multiple line items.)
When it comes to claims, in that same time frame, the City of Jacksonville paid out nearly a quarter-million dollars.
In one of those claims, someone received a $130,000 payout due to bodily injury.
The City of Jacksonville sent us these responses from Public Works when we reached out with questions.
Action News Jax asked: Does the city have a dedicated response team or crew which proactively assesses city maintained roads to inspect for potholes or pavement problems?
City of Jacksonville, Public Works response:
The City maintains a formal program with trained teams using instrumented vehicles to perform assessment of all City roads on a 2 year cycle, which yields an overall pavement condition rating by road segment. This does not identify and target specific pothole locations; rather the condition ratings are used to prioritize the order in which roads will be programmed for resurfacing. For specific potholes, our maintenance teams are set up to respond to service tickets as entered into MyJax or through 630-City.
Action News Jax asked: What commitment does the City of Jacksonville have towards maintaining and providing safe roads, free of potholes or potentially dangerous pavement problems for travelers?
City of Jacksonville, Public Works response:
The City is committed to making best use of the funding available to maintain our more than 3,800 miles of roadway. Our annual resurfacing program is utilized to more comprehensively extend the life of existing roadways as budget allows. Our maintenance teams are charged with repairing localized pavement issues (such as potholes and cave-ins, as reported through 630-City) in the short- to medium- term until the roadway meets the threshold / funding level for resurfacing.
“The city should look at it from a financial perspective. If we can repair the potholes, people won’t get hurt and we don’t pay out these big settlements. If they look at it from an economic perspective, then I think they’ll probably fix a lot of them,” Farah said.
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As for Clayton, when we visited her street to see the status of the pothole patchwork:
“Did it finally ever get fixed?” Morgan asked.
“The road, it’s not fixed, it is patched. Clayton said. “Never fixed. Just a band-aid.”
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The City of Jacksonville’s website lists 630-CITY (2489) or 630-CITY online to report road damage or potholes.
The website also says “Not all holes in the road are the same. Some are cave-ins, and they usually require more extensive work and take longer to repair.”
Additionally, the COJ website said JEA is responsible for repairing cave-ins caused by water or sewer lines. You can call 665-6000 to make a report.
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