Pothole Repair Season Underway
CHICAGO (WBBM/CBS) -- The city's pothole repair season is underway, and with 3,800 miles of streets to look after, crews are expected to be busy for the next couple of months.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Mary Frances Bragiel reports, repair crews are already busy working seven days a week.
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"We typically see the highest number of potholes here in Chicago between the months of December and April each year," said Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner Bobby Ware.
While the city repaired more than 26,000 in 2009, crews had fewer problems last year, filling roughly 21,000.
"At this past construction season, the Department of Transportation put a heightened emphasis on aging; on resurfacing," Ware said.
Officials say a computer mapping system tracks all of the reported problems that are called into 311, and the only way to know about the pothole, commissioner Ware says, is to make sure a call is placed.
City and state officials have said they do not expect this winter to be a bad as other recent years when it comes to potholes, since state and federal money has helped improve the roads.
"I can tell you with certainty we will not see a return to the numbers that we saw in '07, '08 and '08, '09," Department of Transportation spokesman Brian Steele said last week.
Back then, hubcaps by the dozens littered street shoulders across the city. And it took months for crews to get a handle on the problem.
But officials reemphasize that pothole patching remains a priority.
