City To Step Up Street Resurfacing This Year To Reduce Potholes
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Driving on some Chicago streets has been more like going through an obstacle course this winter.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to make sure drivers don't have the same problem next year, so he's planning to have more than 330 miles of streets resurfaced this year.
That's 40 more miles than the city repaved last year, and about double what was paved three years ago.
According to the mayor's office, nearly a quarter of the city's streets have been repaved during his first term in office.
Despite all that work, this year's brutal cold and near-record amounts of snow have combined to leave more than 9,000 lane miles of street looking like a pock-marked moonscape.
"Once you pave new roads, they are less likely to be affected by bad winter," the mayor said. "I think the potholes left show, in my view, the extent in which our streets are old, how bad winter was, but also the responsibility we have to make sure we do what need to do so our streets are paved, and we are actually meeting the needs of our residents and our businesses throughout the city of Chicago, who expect a smoothly-paved street."
More than 30 pothole repair crews have been working every day since the start of the year to patch countless potholes that have cropped up during the brutal winter.
So far, more than 240,000 potholes have been filled this year.
