Arnold Schwarzenegger calls out SoCalGas over viral 'pothole' fix
"Apparently, they thought it was a good plan to take six months to cover the trench, so I just did them a favor," he said.
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Arnold Schwarzenegger called out SoCalGas Thursday over his viral "pothole" fix after the utility company responded to the repair.
Earlier this week, the former California governor said his neighborhood had been waiting weeks for the reported pothole to be fixed. So he got his hands on some Quikrete and did the work himself with help from his team.
NOTE: The video above is from a previous report.
However, the Los Angeles Department of Public Works said it wasn't really a pothole, but a service trench that needed to be repaired by SoCalGas. On Wednesday, SoCalGas said crews went and leveled off the patch with compaction equipment to provide more strength to the temporary paving.
SoCalGas said work to upgrade the pipeline system on Mandeville Canyon Road was completed on Jan. 26 and then crews applied temporary paving over the excavation.
"As part of the maintenance process, SoCalGas performs permanent paving approximately 30 days from the completion of the project," the company said in a statement. "This is to allow scheduling of specialized crews and equipment to perform that work."
SoCalGas said due to the recent rain, "the ability to perform the permanent paving" was delayed.
In a tweet posted by Schwarzenegger on Thursday, the "Terminator" actor made it clear he believes the trench had been there far too long.
"So everyone knows, the pipeline work was finished in January. Apparently, they thought it was a good plan to take six months to cover the trench, so I just did them a favor," the tweet read. "And why don't they talk about the second pothole I filled?"
Schwarzenegger was responding to a tweet posted by Daniel Ketchell, who is listed as Chief of Staff for Team Schwarzenegger on Twitter.
In his own tweet, Ketchell said "It's always important to take bureaucratic damage control with a grain of salt. First, they implied @schwarzenegger paved over active gas work that would finish at the end of May. Then, the truth came out: the gas work was done in January (and the timeline for paving sped up)."
Ketchel continued, saying the fix wasn't "a political thing."
"[Schwarzenegger] didn't blame the mayor, who he knows has only been in office for a few months and is trying to hire more street workers right now. He just wanted to show it's possible to get things done quickly," said Ketchel.
SoCalGas said it expects to complete permanent paving by the end of this week.
LA looking to hire people to help repair potholes
