Chicago’s unusual midseason snow drought has city workers getting a head start on patching potholes, a process that would normally start in late winter or early spring.
"When weather’s better and there’s no snow, (there are) more crews out filling more potholes," Randy Conner, first deputy commissioner for the city’s Transportation Department, told reporters Friday morning at a residential block in Calumet Heights, where workers were filling small potholes with asphalt.
But, he said, when "there’s snow and ice out, we can’t get to them."
Potholes are caused by moisture seeping into the pavement, which then expands as it freezes, causing the asphalt to pop. Without the abundance of snowfall and low temperatures to cause these conditions, patching crews this winter can keep up with the potholes that are reported, Conner said. And without snowplows on the streets, which can occasionally rip out the material that fills potholes, crews don’t have to revisit the potholes they already filled.
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Rock salt is everywhere in the Midwest during winter, spread as a remedy for snowy and icy highways, city streets, parking lots and sidewalks.
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But sodium chloride’s safety benefits can obscure what scientists say are widespread and troubling environmental costs.
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About 16 city crews are able to hit the streets each day this winter, filling more potholes than they typically would. In January, workers repaired more than 56,000 potholes, compared with just more than 40,000 in January 2016, according to the transportation officials.
Warmer weather during the past couple of winters also has led to a drop in pothole complaints. The number of city pothole complaints was down 18 percent from 2015 to 2016, from 38,664 complaints to 31,736 complaints. Complaints were down 37 percent in 2016 compared with 2014, when the city experienced a memorable polar vortex and its ninth coldest winter on record, city officials said.
There were 50,000 pothole complaints in 2014, officials said. An unusually brutal winter with extended periods of subzero temperatures and heavy snow led to City Hall receiving triple the number of pothole complaints compared with the two winters preceding it, according to a March 2014 Tribune article.
Potholes Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune
A crew with the Chicago Department of Transportation fixes potholes along East End Avenue at 88th Street in Chicago on Feb. 3, 2017.
A crew with the Chicago Department of Transportation fixes potholes along East End Avenue at 88th Street in Chicago on Feb. 3, 2017.
(Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
There has been record-low snowfall this winter, with just 0.6 inches recorded at O’Hare International Airport since Dec. 19. It’s the second least snowfall during that time period, since snow records began in Chicago in 1884. The only time less snow fell during the midwinter period was 1899-1900 — just 0.3 inches.
"Right now, we’re hoping that the weather just holds up the way that it is now — without the snow, without the ice," Conner said.
The city plans to continue patching potholes through spring, and encourages residents to report potholes by calling 311.
meltagouri@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @marwaeltagouri
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