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Residents seek city help: ‘One pothole can turn them upside down’

Posted at 7:14 PM, Apr 11, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-12 08:49:42-04

RICHMOND, Va. – Neighbors living off of Powhatan Street showed CBS 6 Problem Solvers how potholes along the road could easily tip a wheelchair.

Chris Tompkins and other folks who live at the nearby Virginia Home, for people with disabilities, said the area along Powhatan Street is a patchwork mess of potholes – an uneven road that makes for a bumpy ride.

“The angle of the road is really bad so sometimes I'm concerned about flipping over my chair if I get too far to the left or the right then that brings up the issue of me riding in the middle the road and I have to be worried about traffic because of that,” Jeff Tomlin said.

Severe potholes along the well traveled road.

Severe potholes along the well traveled road.

One woman told CBS 6 that they have contacted the city for over a year about fixing the potholes.

The city did some temporary fill-ins on Powhatan Street and Lake Road, but neighbors that hasn’t fixed the problem, because the streets were so riddled with potholes.

“They need to fill the potholes and redo the whole street,” said Willis Fleming. “It is unsafe. It's not safe at all.”

Residents hope the road can be paved

Residents hope the road can be paved

“It's particularly perilous because one pothole can turn them upside down and badly injure them,” said  Bob Krause.

The city said they received a call on March 31 about filling the potholes, and it was put on their schedule for sometime next week.

The representative added that since crews were in the area Monday, they bumped up the work to get it done.

She said there is no funding allocated to repave the whole road.

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