EXCLUSIVE: Arnold Schwarzenegger Reacts To Filling Pothole That Wasn't One

Arnold Schwarzenegger does "not regret" taking matters into his own hands by filling in a "giant pothole" on a road in Los Angeles.

The movie star and former governor of California, 75, headed down with shovels and bitumen to the spot he claimed had been wreaking havoc for drivers and cyclists for weeks, only to later learn he'd filled in a service trench used by the local gas company.

"You shouldn't just take the active service trench thing as gospel, since the city later changed their story to say the work was done in January," Schwarzenegger's chief of staff, Daniel Ketchell, told Newsweek.

Schwarzenegger went down with some of his staff to fill the "giant pothole" in Mandeville Canyon, a small community in the Brentwood area of L.A., and posted a video of their efforts to social media.

"This is crazy, for three weeks we've been waiting for this hole to be closed," he told a woman in the video who stopped by in her car to thank them for doing the work.

He captioned the social media post: "Today, after the whole neighborhood has been upset about this giant pothole that's been screwing up cars and bicycles for weeks, I went out with my team and fixed it. I always say, let's not complain, let's do something about it. Here you go."

But according to local media, the area was being used by SoCal Gas to repair a pipeline in the area and had created a service trench to complete the work. The City of Los Angeles said the works should be completed by May.

"As is the case with similar projects impacting City streets, SoCal Gas will be required to repair the area once their work is completed," a city spokesperson told NBC Los Angeles.

SoCal Gas said it finished the pipeline repairs in January and would usually cover up the service trench with permanent paving within 30 days of completion but was delayed due to recent storms.

It "applied temporary paving over the excavation" and planned to finish the permanent paving work by the end of this week, the company told The Los Angeles Times.

SoCal Gas told ABC7 that it had sent crews on Wednesday to level the patch and give more strength to the temporary paving, adding the bitumen Schwarzenegger used would not be useful as it was a concrete road.

Ketchell told Newsweek his boss "doesn't regret" his actions because local residents had been waiting months for the dent in the road to be fixed.

"So if the work was finished in January, they'd already left the trench as a threat to cars and bicycles for four months and apparently planned on leaving it for another two. Of course he doesn't regret it," he said.

When asked if Schwarzenegger would pay to redo the paving he put down if requested by the city, Ketchell said: "we don't like to solve problems that haven't happened yet."

Ketchell also reinforced that The Terminator's action "was not a political statement" directed at the new L.A. mayor, Karen Bass, but rather that of a frustrated resident.

"He 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," he tweeted.

Bass herself recently gave an updated on how the city was working to repair 19,000 potholes caused by severe winter storms.

"City staff are pulling out all the stops, but not just to prepare every pothole that's reported, but also to be proactive. That means driving across the city throughout this district and all others to assess the conditions of our streets, identify and repair damage right way," Bass said in a press conference on Thursday, March 6.

Newsweek contacted SoCal Gas by phone, the City of Los Angeles Mayor's office by email and the city's Department of Public Works by phone and email. Newsweek also contacted the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates natural gas services in the state, by email for comment.