Contact:  Pete Scales   312.744.0707   peter.scales@cityofchicago.org

City Pothole Crews Eliminate Backlog Of Requests For Service
By Using New Deployment Strategies

In November, Backlog was more than 6,000 Open Requests;
Today, Pothole Calls are Addressed Within 2.5 Days  

 
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) announced today that through a number of new deployment strategies, pothole-repair crews have successfully eliminated the backlog of open requests for service within three months and are now keeping pace with daily calls for service.

“We are constantly looking for ways to improve our service delivery,” said Mayor Emanuel.  “By concentrating our pothole-repair efforts in the areas with the greatest need, and approaching the work in a smarter way, we are now delivering better and quicker service to the people of Chicago.”

Over the past three months, CDOT has used new mapping technology to build daily grid routes to address the open calls for service in both streets and alleys, allowing crews to concentrate their efforts.

CDOT also now has all of its asphalt materials delivered to the four neighborhood field offices, eliminating the wasted time and resources by crews driving to the asphalt plants to load their trucks before going out to work each morning.  

“Pothole-repair crews are now deployed in a way that maximizes efficiency and increases productivity,” said Gabe Klein, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation. “By using smarter strategies, the result has been the elimination of a large backlog of outstanding calls for service.”

When Mayor Emanuel took office at the end of May 2011, there were more than 9,000 outstanding calls for pothole-repair service.   When the new deployment strategies went into action in the beginning of November, there were nearly 7,000 outstanding calls in the backlog.  This morning, there were about 300 open calls, a number that can be covered in an average day’s work schedule. 

In 2012, there is an average of about 2.5 days between a resident’s 311 call about a pothole and that pothole being filled, Klein said.  The mild winter, without the swings in freezing and thawing temperatures, has helped reduce the number of new potholes being created citywide.

Klein visited a pothole-repair crew at work today in the 1600-1800 blocks of West Garfield Boulevard, filling potholes in a number of locations in the immediate vicinity. 

In 2011, CDOT crews filled nearly 600,000 potholes, up from about 450,000 in 2010.

Grid-based, targeted approaches are being used throughout the City to save resources and deliver services more efficiently. The Department of Streets and Sanitation recently announced similar success with a grid-based mapping system that has increased productivity for tree-trimming, tree-removal and graffiti-removal crews.