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You know that sound. You know that feeling. They're big. They're everywhere it seems. Potholes are all too common and they don't just slow you down, they drain your wallet. Let's take *** look at how potholes form. It all starts with water. Rain seeps into the cracks in the road. When temperatures drop, that rainwater freezes, expands, and pushes the pavement apart. Then as temperatures rise, the ice thaws and the roads shrink back, leaving behind *** weakened foundation. Over time, this process repeats itself again and again, causing chunks to break loose as cars drive over, the weight further breaks apart the road, forming *** hole, *** pothole, and that's when the real damage starts. In 2023, AAA released *** study called Potholes Pack *** Punch, which revealed that vehicle damage caused by potholes cost Americans about $400 per vehicle, which totals $28 billion an astronomical number when you consider that just 10 years ago, the annual cost was $3 billion. For cities, the financial burden varies, but it is consistently expensive. It costs an estimated $35 to $50 to repair *** pothole, excluding initial mobilization expenses, which can add $100 to $150 per pothole. This figure also varies due to the size and severity of the pothole. In *** city like Chicago which reported 143,000 potholes in 2024, the cost of repair is exorbitant. Cities are finding creative ways to address the problem locally. In Boston, for example, the Boston 311 service allows people to report potholes when they see them. This type of vigilance has helped the city reach *** slight decline in potholes. In 2023, the system received 11,858 pothole sightings compared to 10,616 in 2024. In response, Massachusetts allowed. $200 million for local road and bridge repairs, *** budget that didn't go as far as it used to due to the rising cost of materials in Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott launched the City Service blitz, Build Better Be More in 2023. It was an intensive effort to repair potholes, remove 900 graffiti markings, resurface 9 miles of city roads, and target illegal dumping spots in 90 days, and it worked. The city accomplished the goal and moved on to *** bigger 1, 19,000 potholes, but the work is never quite done. Engineers at the University of Minnesota Duluth are studying how to make the roads better, including how to more effectively patch potholes. According to Professor Manik Barman, asphalt roads have *** life expectancy of 13 to 17 years before they need to be replaced or undergo massive rehabilitation. One area of Barman's research is focused on finding *** more durable asphalt mixture that would result in fewer cracks and fewer potholes in Minnesota. One such solution polymer modified asphalt or PMA. The University of Minnesota found that roads using PMA have *** longer life span in Minnesota's extreme freeze thaw conditions compared to conventional asphalt. Iowa State University's findings show that the use of PMA significantly reduced maintenance costs over *** 10 year period despite higher initial construction expenses. So maybe there is hope after all. At least potholes the size of jacuzzis won't become the norm.