More than $500,000 has been paid out by the ACT government for vehicle damage caused by potholes over the past two years.
The ACT pothole fiasco generated by the unseasonably wet La Nina summers of 2022-23 and 2023-24 resulted in 877 claims against the government for vehicle damage, with 494 emerging from the past summer alone.
And there are still 28 outstanding.
In 2022, the government paid out around $327,000 for various forms of vehicle damage including tyres, rims, suspension and bodywork, at an average of $628 per claim.
Last year it was $191,000, at an average of $568.
Such has been the public, long-running and protracted nature of the claims process against the government that it generated a specific social media page, Canberra Potholes, where people post their experiences in seeking compensation.
Tegan Martin began the page when she hit the massive pothole on Melrose Drive on the October 6, 2022.
"The same day, I submitted the claim via 'fix my street' to get a reimbursement for the cost of the tyre damage," she posted publicly.
"This included photos of the pothole and damage, as well as the receipt."
Her initial claim was denied by the government, but Ms Martin persisted. It took until February 15 for the claim finally to be approved, however her tribulations didn't end there. No reimbursement was forthcoming.
"If you are waiting on a claim, do not let up," she posted on day 151 of waiting for her claim to be paid.
"The ACT government needs to step up their game and take some responsibility and action."
The long-running community debate began back in 2022 when, after a protracted period of drought, winter progressed into a wet spring and an equally wet summer, then Canberra's once much-lauded road quality began to disintegrate.
At the time, Michael Caltabiano, the chief executive of the Australian Road Research Board, reefed the blame home to years of doing the bare minimum in repairs.
And as much as the government blamed the weather and extended the contracts of road repair teams, these were of little solace to those who faced mounting damage bills like Jamie Wilson, who had two expensive rims and tyres on his Ford Falcon destroyed in seconds.
Some local residents, such as those on Mulligans Flat Road, were angry at the wait times and even began their own road repairs. Others decorated them with flowers and Christmas tree lights.
In a speech to the ACT Assembly in late 2022, Liberal member Nicole Lawder took up the pothole cause, describing how "you would be hard-pressed to find a Canberran at the moment who has not hit a pothole or perhaps swerved around one" and claiming road repair crews were not being adequately funded.
Transport and City Services Minister Chris Steel responded by describing how the government had committed $4 million in "surge funding" to pothole repair. He described how in five days alone, repair crews had shovelled out 20 tonnes of cold asphalt mix.
"Under normal resourcing conditions, it would typically take two to three weeks to go through that quantity of cold mix," he said.
Then in mid-2023, work to fix some of Canberra's most dangerous potholes stalled amid a dispute over a contract for labour-hire traffic controllers, which meant that roads with speed limits at 80kmh or above could not be completed.
So far this year, there have been 205 pothole repairs, including to a huge one which appeared suddenly on the Victoria Street access to Hall and disabled three vehicles in 10 minutes.
And there's a long winter ahead.
