Nearly 100 potholes in S'pore due to Jan. 2025's heavy rainfall, LTA thanks public for making reports

Nearly 100 potholes were reported in Singapore in January 2025 by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), with multiple potholes appearing along Tanah Merah Coast Road on Jan. 10 and 11 amid Singapore's heavy rainfall.

The video, posted on the Roads.sg Facebook on Jan. 13, showed holes filled with water along the road.

What happened

Roads.sg said a cyclist reported multiple potholes along Tanah Merah Coast Road to LTA during the past few rainy days.

The potholes were spotted on Jan. 11.

"Within 6 hours after reporting, LTA dispatched workers to fix all the potholes at night," the caption said.

Netizens thanked the user for posting the video so others could be aware of the situation, while some expressed concern about why there were so many potholes.

LTA confirmed potholes repaired on Jan. 12

An LTA spokesperson told Mothership they were alerted to several potholes along Tanah Merah Coast Road on Jan. 10 and 11 following heavy rainfall.

They confirmed that the potholes were repaired on Jan. 12.

Two days before the video was taken, the spokesperson added that a single pothole was spotted at the same stretch of Tanah Merah Coast Road during inspections, and fixed immediately.

The LTA spokesperson also told Mothership that as of Jan. 12, it detected close to 100 potholes across island in 2025.

"This is lower compared to the 776 potholes detected during the same period in 2024," they said, adding that LTA will continue closely monitoring all roads for defects.

The spokesperson explained that "cracks form on the road surface as part of normal wear and tear and are typically repaired during regular inspection, maintenance, and road resurfacing works."

"During rainy weather, water seeps in and widens the cracks as vehicles go over them," the LTA spokesperson said, adding: "This is worsened by prolonged heavy rainfall that we experienced over the past few days."

To mitigate the impact of heavier rainfall in recent years, the spokesperson said LTA is prioritising localised road resurfacing on the slow lane of roads with a higher concentration of heavy vehicles, and roads with high traffic volume.

Pre-emptive maintenance has also been adopted by LTA in recent years, including expediting localised resurfacing at roads with heavier vehicle loading or higher traffic volume.

LTA said that with these measures, the number of potholes detected across Singapore annually has also fallen since 2021, with 9,702 in 2021, 4,517 in 2022, 3,817 in 2023, and 3,013 potholes in 2024.

"We appreciate members of the public reporting road defects, such as potholes," said the LTA spokesperson.

Those who spot road defects such as potholes can report them via the "Snap & Send" function on the MyTransport.SG mobile application or the Municipal Services Office’s OneService application.

Top image via ROADS.sg and LTA/Facebook