SAN ANTONIO – If you drive on South Zarzamora Street near Hunter’s Pond on the South Side, you may already know about the large pothole. It is roughly 5 feet long, 3 feet wide, and nearly 5 inches deep at its worst point.
It takes up the entire drivable lane. The other lane is currently closed for construction — meaning drivers have no choice but to go straight through it or swerve to avoid it.
Jesus Escamilla has been doing this commute every weekday for five years. He’s watched that hole get bigger and bigger, and he’s watched the city do almost nothing about it.
“They’ll fill in a small hole,” he told KSAT, “but that small hole becomes a bigger hole and nothing really gets resolved.”
Blowouts, busted tires, and a $500 bill
Escamilla isn’t just frustrated — he’s out money.
He says the pothole blew out his tire. His best friend’s tire, too. When he looked into whether the city could be held responsible, he found out they couldn’t.
“I had to pay $500 for my tire,” he said. “I’m just fortunate enough that I was able to afford it, but I know there are a lot of people out there that it would be catastrophic to them.”
He’s a retired Navy veteran and says his concern goes beyond his own wallet. He’s watched cars swerve completely off the road trying to dodge the potholes, nearly ending up in a ditch.
Escamilla says he has filed multiple complaints through the city’s 311 system. He even found a disclaimer on the city’s pothole repair website that says potholes larger than three feet in diameter can take up to 60 days to repair.
It’s been more than a year since he started reporting it. The pothole only got worse, so he reached out to KSAT.
KSAT called the City of San Antonio’s Public Works department while on scene. A representative told us that for potholes measuring 3 feet by 3 feet, the city can typically fix them within two business days, but anything larger falls into a different, more involved repair category.
Within hours of that call, Public Works responded by email. They said a pavement repair team is now scheduled to come out and fix the pothole. They’re expediting the repair, in part because they say they’ve received multiple 311 calls about this stretch of road in just the past six days.
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