So...I was driving on City Line Ave in Philly this past weekend. Surprise surprise, the city decided to rebuild that road (god knows when) and so the road was left raw (uneven pavement). The whole road had ridges and the manhole covers all had 4-5 inch thick square pavement around them which was 4-5 inches elevated from the regualr road (making it essentially bumps on the road that were serious). So i know to drive slower then usual on the road ( 25 mph compared to 40 mph speed limit). Out of no where this huge, and I mean HUGE, manwhole cover with a 5 inch elevated pavement around it comes out in front of my car. I see it and try to swerve out of the way...no luck. The passenger side tire takes the grunt of the hit and long story short...passenger side rim....bent....front subframe....bent....front skid plate...bent....under carriage protector....broken in half. I manage to drive it back to my auto guys at FirstStateMotor Sports and they said if that was a Honda, the oil pan would have been ripped right off the car and so in the reguard, i was lucky. And oh yea...damage repairs expected to be in the range of $1,800-$2,000. Damn Philly and their screwed up roads and lazy *** construction workers. Those manhole covers with surrounding elevated pavement is supposed to be ramped up and ramped down, not cut straight down making them a serious car destroyer they are. Best believe I'm gonna get the city to pay for this repair. Thats all...my $0.02 story. Thanks for reading.

 

seen the roads of nyc lately?

 

you might be able to file a claim w/ the city for reimbursement because it was due to negligence on the city's part to maintain the raods. Check up on this if you get a chance.

 

I have had a very similar thing happen to my G, didnt see this square hole cut out of the road, bout 5 inhes deep, and like you say no ramp up and down, just straight down, there was no visual warnings around it at all, how are people expected to see this crap at night ?! My passanger side front wheel went through it, it was damn loud, I went out of the car check it out and nothing!, I wasnt going 25 though, more like 15-20. But it felt like my heart dropped into my *** lol, I am sure you felt the same. I also hit a not nearly as bad of a hole going faster about 40 before and thought i cracked the rim, pulled over nothing. I guess those 19" forged rims are pretty tough. But yea my first thought was, if anything happened, call the po pos and get them to write it down so the damn city can pay for it.

Good luck and make sure the city pays for it, it is their responsibility.

 

Yup, I second that . It's a battleground .

 

That is why I avoid driving in the city at all cost, f that!

 

That same exact type of cut on a man hole cover killed my ninja zx-11 in 2001. That was a tough fall. One minute you are going down a hill behind a bunch of traffic at 35 mph and the next second your are flying past your bike which couldn't take a 5 1/2" sudden change in grade that you couldn't avoid even if you wanted to thanks to the pavement cut lines.

I stopped riding in PA thanks to PENBDOT's negligence and lack of due care for anything other than thier own incompentent fat a$$es. I always buy the wheel and tire package thanks to our lovely state's abilty to protect us from death holes.

[/rant]