The city's pothole hot line has averaged about 60 calls a day in the past few days while the state hot line has received 30 since the weekend.

"We have all our crews mobilized to address them," said Tyler Sugihara, acting chief of the city's Division of Road Maintenance. "There has been a severe increase because of the wet weather."

It isn't as bad as earlier this year, when the city hot line received about 80 calls a day, but workers are scrambling to keep up, often making temporary fixes to places they will have to come back to later, Sugihara said.

A driver maneuvers past potholes at the intersection of Harding and 6th avenues in Kaimuki. Officials blame recent heavy rain for the "severe increase" in potholes on city and state roads. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Additional funding for "road rehab" is helping, but 30 percent of the positions are vacant and crews have to work hard to keep up. On Monday, crews at the city's eight maintenance yards around O'ahu were told to hit the streets and look for potholes.

The state Department of Transportation did the same thing this week, said spokesman Scott Ishikawa.

"We've rescheduled all of our road maintenance crews to do pothole duties for the next two weeks," he said. "Folks who were doing grass cutting and sign repair have been asked to do pothole repair duty to take care of the rash of complaints."

The state has spent $350,000 so far this year fixing potholes, he said. The better solution is wholesale repaving, and there are several projects under way or about to start, he said.

"Patching potholes is a temporary fix," Ishikawa said.

The impact from January's punishing rain surprised transportation officials.

"The state and the city have resurfaced a lot of roads since the winter rains and I think it has cut down on potholes," Ishikawa said. "I think everyone was taken aback by the winter rains. Everyone is more prepared this year."

Resurfacing of a five-mile stretch of the Moanalua Freeway should be finished next month and give drivers about eight years of pothole-free conditions, he said.

A similar project is under way on the Kalihi side of Likelike Highway. In January or February, work will also begin on Nimitz Highway.

State crews made repairs yesterday to the H-1 Freeway near Pearl City, and in two areas of Kamehameha Highway — one near Wahiawa and the other near Sunset Beach. Today, they are on Nimitz Highway and at Castle Junction.

"Some of the potholes are pretty deep," Ishikawa said.