If you read the Sound Off comments regularly here on the opinion page of the Washington Daily News, after political parties and/or politicians, one of the most popular issues to gripe about is the state of local roadways.

Whether it’s dirt roads in one area or deteriorating roads in another, no one likes to dodge cracks, crevices or holes in the road — nor hit an unexpected pothole at a relatively high speed. That can do some damage.

Beaufort County drivers might be seeing more potholes lately due to the highs and lows the county has experienced weather-wise. Those cracks start out small, but when water settles into them and freezes, as happened several times over the first week of January, the cracks widen. Asphalt rises, continued traffic over the area loosens the pavement, and a pothole is born. More tires rolling over a small pothole can eventually lead to a large one — one that can cause an alignment injury.

Some of these potholes will be occurring on state roads, and the state wants to know where they are. There are more than 80,000 miles of state roads in North Carolina, and every pothole won’t be spotted by NCDOT employees. So, it’s up to the drivers of the state to point them out.

It’s easy to do. Last year, more than 10,000 potholes were reported to the state using a form on NCDOT’s website. The information is funneled from the state to the county office that will handle fixing the road.

Any driver can be a part of the process of getting a potentially damaging (and sometimes even dangerous) pothole fixed simply by logging on to www.ncdot.gov/CONTACT/REPORT/POTHOLE/ and letting NCDOT know there’s a problem on some road out there, somewhere. And it might save someone a call to Sound Off.