Pothole damage in Tulsa: reporting it and claiming the repair

Report the pothole: Tulsa 311 and what happens next

Report the hole whether or not you plan to claim. City crews rely on residents to find potholes, and the City takes reports four ways:

• The Tulsa 311 app for iPhone or Android.
• Online at Tulsa311.com, around the clock, once you have a Tulsa311 account.
• Email to Tulsa311@cityoftulsa.org, with the exact location.
• Phone: 311 inside the city limits, or (918) 596-2100 from outside Tulsa, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Name the street, the nearest cross street, the lane and your direction. Screenshot what you send so you have the date.

Per the City's Pothole Repair page, a field supervisor inspects each logged report and orders a temporary patch or a permanent repair. A patch triggers a second work order for the permanent fix. Its timing: “Almost all potholes are patched within 72 hours of being reported to the Customer Care Center.” In January 2025 the City named 72 hours as its repair goal and put its crews' pace at 200 to 300 potholes a day, roughly 100,000 a year.

Source: City of Tulsa: Pothole Repair; City of Tulsa: Contact the City (311 hours and channels); City of Tulsa press release, Jan. 15, 2025: City Encourages Residents to Report Potholes; City of Tulsa press release, Feb. 17, 2023: Tulsa Pothole Reporting Made Easy.

City street, highway, turnpike or county road?

Whoever owns the road fixes the hole and receives your claim. The City is direct about highways: “Please note, all highway and on/off-ramp road repairs are the responsibility of ODOT.” ODOT's FAQ adds that cities keep up their own streets, county commissioners keep up county roads, and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority runs the turnpikes separately.

The line matters for money: under 51 O.S. § 155.1, a city is not liable for a defect on a stretch the state must maintain. Unsure who maintains a numbered highway? Ask ODOT's Tulsa office, 4002 N. Mingo Valley Expressway, before you file. The tolls and PikePass page lists the turnpikes around Tulsa.

Source: City of Tulsa press release, Feb. 17, 2023: highway and ramp repairs are ODOT's; ODOT: FAQ (city, county and turnpike roads; pothole reports and claims); ODOT: Field District 8, Tulsa headquarters; Oklahoma Turnpike Authority: 2026 Outlook, turnpike map; Tulsa County: Highway Engineering; Oklahoma Statutes, Title 51, § 155.1.

Filing a claim with the City of Tulsa

A damage claim against the City goes on its Notice of Tort Claim form, which the Legal department posts in English and Spanish, as a Word file or a PDF. Mail or deliver it to the City Clerk, 175 East Second Street, Suite 260, Tulsa, OK 74103. The Clerk's office receives all claims against the City and answers at (918) 596-7513, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The form's Important Notice sets the clock: “To be valid your claim must be submitted to the City Clerk within one year from the date of the incident.” The Clerk passes it to the City Attorney's office to investigate. Beyond the date, time, place and story, the form requires a copy of your title or registration for a vehicle. It also asks for repair bills or two estimates, what your insurer paid, any witnesses, and the exact amount you would accept as full settlement. To check on a claim later, call the City Attorney at (918) 596-7717.

Source: City of Tulsa: Legal department, tort claim forms; City of Tulsa: Notice of Tort Claim form (PDF); City of Tulsa: City Clerk's Office.

Highways and interstates: the claim goes to the state

For damage on an interstate, highway or ramp, ODOT's FAQ sends claims to the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) at 405-521-4999, where its Risk Management department handles them. Use the state's Property Tort Claim Form from the OMES public forms page. It lists Risk Management at P.O. Box 53364, Oklahoma City, OK 73152, with fax 405-522-4442 and email SRM.Claims@omes.ok.gov.

Put it on paper. In OMES's words, “A telephone call does not constitute a claim.” State law allows certified mail with a return receipt, and a mailed claim counts as filed when Risk Management receives it.

By filing, you are alleging that a state agency or employee was negligent, and the form asks for your evidence. On a state highway, § 155(31) raises the bar: the state is not liable for highway maintenance unless you show it failed to warn of the hazard, or that a negligent act by the state caused the loss. OMES cannot approve a rental car up front; reasonable rental is weighed only if the claim is approved.

Source: ODOT: FAQ, pothole damage claims; OMES Risk Management: FAQ; OMES Risk Management: Public Forms; OMES: Property Tort Claim Form (PDF); Oklahoma Statutes, Title 51, §§ 155 and 156.

County roads and turnpikes

County roads

Tulsa County's Highway Engineering department runs three maintenance districts, one per commissioner district, and pothole repair is part of their work. Use the county's Report Road Conditions form, or call the County Engineer at 918-596-5733.

A claim against the county goes on the county's Notice of Tort Claim form, filed in person or by mail with the Tulsa County Clerk's Office, 218 W. 6th St. 7th Floor, Tulsa, OK 74119. For property damage it requires at least two repair estimates, photos of the damage, and proof you own the car.

Turnpikes

Turnpikes are not ODOT roads. Around Tulsa the Turnpike Authority runs the Creek Turnpike through south Tulsa, Jenks and Broken Arrow, and Tulsa's Gilcrease Expressway. OTA's contact page has an online Report a Problem form and a headquarters line, 405-425-3600, weekdays 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It lists no damage-claim form, so call and ask where a written claim goes, well inside a year.

Source: Tulsa County: Highway Engineering; Tulsa County: Tort Claims; Tulsa County: Notice of Tort Claim form (PDF); Oklahoma Turnpike Authority: Contact Us; Oklahoma Turnpike Authority: 2026 Outlook; ODOT: FAQ, turnpikes.

Oklahoma's deadlines and dollar limits

All four routes run on the Governmental Tort Claims Act, 51 O.S. §§ 151-172. What decides a pothole claim:

• One year, in writing. Section 156 bars a claim against the state or a city forever unless written notice is presented within one year after the loss. A city claim is filed with the clerk of its governing body.
• What the notice says. Date, time, place, circumstances, the amount you demand, and your contact details; a gap does not void it unless you refuse to fill it when asked. A property claim adds how you worked out the amount, the papers behind it, and proof of ownership.
• Ninety days to answer. Under § 157, a claim not approved in full within 90 days counts as denied. If it approves or denies sooner, it must send you notice within five days.
• 180 days to sue after a denial, and not before one. A written agreement can extend that, never past two years from the loss.
• A cap. The Legislature's posted text of § 154 shows two versions, both enacted in 2025: one caps a property claim at $25,000, the other, effective November 1, 2025, at $75,000. Either is a ceiling, not an amount owed. Punitive damages are barred, and the government pays only its share of the fault.

Source: Oklahoma Statutes, Title 51, §§ 151-172 (Governmental Tort Claims Act), Oklahoma Legislature.

The exemptions in § 155 that touch roads

Section 155 lists 37 kinds of loss the state or a city is not liable for. None names potholes. Four bear on a road claim:

• Weather (paragraph 8). No liability for snow, ice or other temporary or natural conditions that weather causes on a public way, unless government negligence produced them. The statute does not say whether a pothole counts; the City's Pothole Repair page blames freezing and thawing water in the pavement.
• State highways (paragraph 31). The failure-to-warn or negligent-act test above.
• Contractors (paragraph 18). No liability for the acts of an independent contractor or its employees.
• Signs and signals (paragraph 15). The government is exempt for a missing or broken traffic sign or signal unless it fails to fix it within a reasonable time after actual or constructive notice. No other paragraph in § 155 mentions notice.

So § 155 has no general rule excusing a defect the city did not know about. The baseline is § 153: the government is liable only where a private person in its place would owe money damages. For state roads, § 155.1 adds a bar for defects that existed on October 1, 1985, or when the road joined the state highway system, known or not.

Source: Oklahoma Statutes, Title 51, §§ 153, 155 and 155.1; City of Tulsa: Pothole Repair, how potholes form.

What to collect for any pothole claim

The city, county and state forms, and § 156 itself, ask for much the same proof. Gather it while the hole is still there:

• Photos of the pothole, wide and close, and of the damage. The county form requires damage photos.
• Where and when: street, cross street, lane, direction, date and time.
• Two written estimates or the repair bill. The City and OMES take either; the county wants at least two estimates.
• Tow, storage and rental receipts. The state form has a line for each.
• Your title or registration, as proof the car is yours.
• Your 311 report and any witnesses' names and phone numbers.

Before you drive on a bulging tire or a bent wheel, see the small problems page on damaged tires and wheels and what Oklahoma's tire law says.

Source: City of Tulsa: Notice of Tort Claim form (PDF); Tulsa County: Notice of Tort Claim form (PDF); OMES Risk Management: FAQ, documents for property claims; OMES: Property Tort Claim Form (PDF); Oklahoma Statutes, Title 51, § 156(H).

Does your own insurance pay?

If you carry collision coverage, check it. The Oklahoma Insurance Department's consumer guide puts it this way: “Collision covers damage to your vehicle when you collide with another object or vice versa.” The guide does not mention potholes, so read your policy or ask your agent. The department's consumer line is 1-800-522-0071.

The government forms allow for an insurance claim too. The City form asks what you claimed from your insurer and what you received. The state form asks whether you filed with your own insurer, whether you carry comprehensive coverage, and your deductible. The insurance page covers Oklahoma's required coverage.

Source: Oklahoma Insurance Department: Consumer Resource Guide (PDF); City of Tulsa: Notice of Tort Claim form (PDF); OMES: Property Tort Claim Form (PDF).

When the repair costs more than the car

If the estimates come back higher than the car is worth, set them beside its value with the repair-or-sell worksheet. If selling wins, we buy some cars ourselves, pay by check and cover all of Tulsa. Call (539) 271-2021 or use the sell-it-to-us form.