Twice in one month Antonio Lanni has heard the same sound coming from underneath his 2025 BMW M3: the hiss of air escaping the tires.
The first instance came in February while driving in the area of Pine Street in downtown Providence. He hit a pothole, cracking the rim and puncturing the tire on his rear passenger side. The cost to repair: $1,000.
The second time happened the night of March 4 on Putnam Pike on his way back home to North Providence. He hit a pothole on the state-maintained highway, ripping through both driver side tires. Replacing them will cost him $225 per tire.
Lanni has filed claims with both the city of Providence and the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) to cover the damage. But he’ll still have to dig into his own wallet.
Pothole damage is typically only covered by car insurance if the policy includes collision coverage, which is subject to a deductible. Lanni said his car insurance policy would not cover pothole-related damage.
All Rhode Island municipalities, and the state itself, only offer up to $300 in pothole-related reimbursements — rates lawmakers set decades ago during the Garrahy and Sundlun administrations.
“To be honest, if I’m spending $1,500, I’ve got to try to do something,” Lanni said. “I know it’s not going to cover the whole thing, but it’s definitely better than nothing.”
Lucky for Lanni, he said he can get his tires at a discounted rate since he works as a service adviser at Tasca Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram FIAT in Johnston.
RIDOT’s $300 rate was set by lawmakers in 1979, becoming law without Gov. Joseph Garrahy’s signature. Adjusted for inflation, the Carter-era reimbursement rate would be $1,404 today.
The law was updated in 1994 to set a timeline of 45 days for RIDOT to pay for approved claims because there had been no established deadline for the state to respond. Also that same year, lawmakers set the maximum reimbursement for damages from potholes on local roads at $300 to match the state rate. Previously, the maximum amount municipalities could reimburse motorists was $50 under a rate set in 1956, the equivalent of $609 today.
“It’s pennies compared to what people actually pay for the damages,” said Trish Cirelli, owner of Wayne’s Service Plus in Providence.
Cirelli said the most common pothole-related damage she’s seen this winter has been to vehicles’ suspension systems. Control arms, which connect a car’s wheels to its chassis, can cost between $500 to $800 to repair.
Should a rim get dinged by a pothole, then you’re really in for it.
“Those are factory typically, so that’s a lot of money you’re talking,” Cirelli said. “Like $1,500 to $1,800 per wheel.”
Hairych Cruz, a salesperson for BTS Tire & Service Store in Pawtucket, said mechanics recently repaired two pothole-damaged rims and tires on a 2024 Toyota Prius for a cost of roughly $1,600. An older model would have cost a little less since the newer vehicles tend to come with larger wheels, he said.
“Big wheels means more money, and big wheels means bigger tires,” Cruz said.
The fact the rate hasn’t changed was even a shock for Rhode Island’s newest transportation chief.
“They just haven’t really felt the need to update it at the General Assembly,” Interim RIDOT Director Robert Rocchio told Rhode Island Current.
Rep. Terri Cortvriend, a Portsmouth Democrat who chairs the House Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Environment and Transportation, was unaware the rates have stayed the same for decades when asked by Rhode Island Current.
“I’m a little embarrassed that I didn’t know,” she said. “That might be something to take up next year.”
Could be worse. Could be better.
Rhode Island’s reimbursement rates are still more than what drivers can get in Massachusetts to repair their cars if they strike a pothole on one of their state roads — which is nothing. Massachusetts law holds the commonwealth only liable for injuries sustained while traveling on state highways, with stipulations. The amount that can be reimbursed is capped at $4,000.
Massachusetts municipalities allow reimbursement for vehicle damages, but only if the city or town had “reasonable notice” of the defect that might have been remedied by “reasonable care or diligence.”
Similarly, Maine’s DOT is not liable for vehicle damages incurred on its state-maintained roadways, unless the defect is within a construction zone and occurs during the performance of construction or maintenance. In that case, the claimant would have to prove the state acted negligently or failed to act.
Municipalities in Maine can reimburse up to $6,000 for road-related damages, but claims have to be filed within 24 hours of the accident.
Connecticut’s Department of Transportation has no reimbursement cap to cover damage sustained because of the conditions of state roads. Drivers must submit claims by mail within 90 days of the damage occurring.
New Hampshire’s Department of Transportation caps reimbursements for vehicle damage at $2,000. Claims must be completed and mailed to the state’s assistant transportation commissioner within 60 days of the accident.
Vermont has no cap on reimbursement for vehicle damage but claim payments typically range from $300 to $500, Amy Tatko ,a Vermont Agency of Transportation spokesperson, said. Pothole claims are accepted for reimbursement if the transportation agency had prior knowledge of the offending pothole on a state road and didn’t repair it in a timely manner.For drivers whose vehicles were damaged on a state road, claims can be filed on RIDOT’s website. The form asks only for personal information and the date and location of the incident. Only vehicles registered in Rhode Island are eligible for reimbursement.
For local roads, RIDOT refers drivers to contact their municipality’s department of public works.
An asphalt state
Peak pothole season is from late winter to early spring, with craters forming after water from melted snow and ice finds its way into tiny cracks and crevices on the road.
During the 2024 season, RIDOT saw 506 pothole-related damage claims. Last winter was milder; the state saw 182 claims.
Winter 2026 claims are still being tabulated, RIDOT spokesperson Charles St. Martin said in an email.
“We have received pothole claims since the blizzard but are still reviewing them because they include claims that are not on state roads but on local roads,” he said. “For those, we’ll respond to the person who made the claim about how to get in touch with the local city or town where the damage occurred. Also, some of the claims are related to work a utility company or construction company was doing, and those would be handled by the utility or respective contractor.”
Since the blizzard the city of Providence has received 42 pothole claims, city spokesperson Josh Estrella confirmed. Each claim is still being processed as of Thursday.He did not immediately provide the number of claims submitted before the storm.
Rhode Island’s roads become more pothole prone with temperature swings like those witnessed since the historic blizzard on Feb. 22-23 that dumped over 3 feet of snow across much of the state.
In the immediate aftermath of the blizzard, the National Weather Service recorded a low temperature of 9 degrees at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport. Temperatures then rose to an average of 45 degrees at the end of February before dipping to 10 degrees on March 3.
A week later, the Providence metro area saw temperatures reach as high as the mid-70s.
“That type of change for this area is not unprecedented, but it’s pretty extreme to have that kind of swing,” Hayden Frank, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norton, Massachusetts, said
Farther north, roads tend to stay frozen all winter, Rocchio observed.
“That’s much better than going below freezing-above freezing, above freezing-below freezing,” Rocchio said. “Places that stay cold are actually OK.”
Many of those cold-weather states also have roads made of concrete, which Rocchio said tend to be more durable than asphalt but more expensive to repair.
“We’re an asphalt state,” Rocchio said.
And the asphalt plants RIDOT relies on to patch roads tend to shut down during the winter. Recent warm weather allowed plants to open briefly and St. Martin said RIDOT was able to purchase “more durable” hot-mix asphalt for pothole repairs.
“We remain in close coordination with asphalt plants so we can take advantage of these early openings and schedule pothole patching operations at that time,” he said.
RIDOT has also deployed a truck called the “Pothole Killer” that fills the craters with a material that is “just as effective as asphalt,” according to the department’s website.
Estrella said public works crews are “actively repairing potholes” in every neighborhood, filling over 700 potholes since the snow clean-up efforts ended.
More than 1,700 potholes have been filled since the start of the year, he added.
For the time being, Rhode Island’s potholes are good for business for auto repair shops.
“During the winter, business is pretty slow,” Cruz said. “We’ve been averaging 14 to 15 tires a day — and it’s all from potholes.”
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
