4. Traffic can break the pavement. A pothole is a type of failure in an asphalt pavement, caused by the presence of water in the underlying soil structure and the presence of traffic passing over the affected area.Introduction of water to the underlying soil structure first weakens the supporting soil.xample of a pothole reappearing on a newly patched roadway, also showing the transition between crocodile cracking and the pothole, with water dried up, in a road on the Isle of Man. Small potholes, showing isolated failures of the pavement and its subsurface structure, in a road in Banbury, UK.