Spring Is Prime Pothole Season For Chicago. Here’s How To Get Them Fixed On Your Street

CHICAGO — Spring is prime pothole season for Chicago, which means drivers are zig-zagging all over the street to avoid ruining their tires.

The city gets reports of thousands of potholes every month — and it can fill more than 100,000 in a year. But spring tends to be the busiest time; in 2023, the spring months of March-May saw 19,756 potholes reported, more than any other season. There were 9,376 reported to 311 just that March.

Block Club breaks down why Chicago is so plagued by potholes, how to report them — and how to get the city to pay if one damages your car.

What A Pothole Is

You can see them all around the city: Potholes are, at their most basic form, holes that form in the streets.

Potholes are “typically irregularly shaped” and can be different depths, according to the city’s Department of Transportation.

But not every hole is a pothole, according to the city.

• Potholes: Irregular-shaped holes that go through the asphalt layer of the street.
• Cave-Ins and sinkholes: These are larger holes that go all the way to and sometimes through the concrete of the street. You might see these types of issues near manholes and catch basins.
• Ditches and utility cuts: Rectangular- or square-shaped holes and indents. These are usually the result of contractors having dug into the street for utility work, and the city requires those contractors to fix them, according to CDOT.

But you don’t need to know the difference — you can report any street holes and issues to the city.

How Potholes Form

Water can get into the ground under the street — and when Chicago’s notoriously cold winters hit, the water freezes. Water expands when frozen, causing the pavement to shift and crack, according to Summit County Engineer and CDOT. The ice melts, leaving holes where it once was.

This process can repeat, weakening the pavement — which is exacerbated by cars driving on the weakened street. Eventually, the asphalt can break down and sink into gaps, forming a pothole. The pothole can worsen as cars overhead weaken it even further and pieces of the asphalt come loose.

Salt — which Chicago uses to treat its roads when it snows — can also speed up the formation of potholes because it lowers the freezing point for water, leading to more cases of the freezing and thawing cycle, according to Summit County Engineer.

All these issues are particularly problematic in the spring, when temperatures start on the cooler end but fluctuate and warm up as summer approaches — leading to, of course, more freezing and thawing cycles that create potholes.

How To Report A Pothole In Chicago

You can turn to 311 for help whenever you see a pothole in Chicago.

• Website: You can go on the 311 website, 311.chicago.gov, to report a pothole.
• App: You can download the CHI311 mobile app to report a pothole on your phone, tablet or other device.
• Call: You can call 311 to report a pothole, sinkhole or any other type of street issue.

The city tries to get crews out to fix reported potholes within a few days. Crews will also fix nearby potholes if they spot them.

Already, more than 28,000 potholes have been reported around the city since the start of 2024. But the city typically fills far more potholes than are actually reported because crews look for holes all over and fill in any they see, not just ones that have been called in to 311.

The city’s crews can fill in “several thousand potholes” on some days, according to CDOT.

Pothole repair times can vary, but they are typically fixed up within six days, according to CDOT. (Block Club found in 2019 that some potholes didn’t get repaired for weeks.)

The agency prioritizes repairs to holes and issues on arterial streets over repairs to residential streets since major streets see more drivers. Poor weather conditions can also down repairs.

“However, all potholes are important to us, and every pothole reported to 311 will be fixed,” according to CDOT.

Where Potholes Form In Chicago

Here’s a heatmap of potholes reported so far this year, showing which neighborhoods have contacted 311 the most:

You can also search to see how many potholes have been reported so far in 2024 by ward:

Looking for where potholes are repaired? CDOT has an online pothole tracker map that shows where crews have patched potholes within the past week.

Click here to view the map.

Why Potholes Are An Issue

Potholes pose a danger to anyone using the street: They can upend bicyclists, trip up pedestrians and damage cars.

In fact, what appeared to be a pothole in Lakeview turned into a 5-foot sinkhole, partially swallowing a car, in 2019. In the same year, a bicyclist told Block Club about how a pothole tossed her from her Vespa. She fractured her foot in three places and required physical therapy.

How Chicago Fixes Potholes

CDOT has crews of workers who regularly patrol the city and respond to pothole reports to fill in the holes — in fact, they work daily during the winter, according to the agency’s website.

Workers might get called to a street to repair a specific pothole, but they’ll fill in any others they see.

In the winter, the city uses cold-patch asphalt to fix potholes. The rest of the year, workers used hot mix asphalt.

In general, potholes need to be cleaned before they can be repaired — which means picking out trash and other debris that has accumulated in them, like rocks. Crews then fill in the potholes with their asphalt material and use a tool to rake the material into place and ensure the surface is level.

Crews will then use a tool — whether it be a tamper or a roller — to compact the asphalt, making it flatter and reducing cracks.

Getting The City To Pay When A Pothole Damages Your Car

The city does offer reimbursements for cars damaged by potholes, but they aren’t easy to get: It can take more than a year, and many drivers won’t get full reimbursements.

Chicago’s process for getting reimbursed is somewhat unique, as you can file a claim directly with the city instead of having to go to court for damages, according to the City Clerk’s website. But that means the City Council has to OK what you’ll get reimbursed — so it can be a slow process.

First, go to the City Clerk’s website to get the Motor Vehicle Damage Claim Form. Print it and fill it out. You’ll submit the form and required materials to the City Clerk’s Office through the mail or in person: 121 N. LaSalle St., room 107.

Once you submit your claim, you won’t be able to add more material — and you’ll need to wait for it to be reviewed. This process sometimes takes months. You can check the status of your claim by contacting the council’s Committee on Finance at 312-744-8861.

The City Clerk’s Office will review your claim and, if it meets the requirements, will send it to the Committee on Finance. Once the claim is with the committee, it will be given a claim number and you can use its number to check its progress on the office’s Legislative Information Center.

The committee will have to review it and, if it decides to award you damages, it will go to the full City Council, where alderpeople will get the final vote on whether to award you damages.

Potholes As Art

Potholes might be problematic — but at least one Chicagoan, artist Jim Bachor, has found a way to reclaim that as art.

For years, Bachor has personally filled in potholes and transform them into mosaic masterpieces, earning a following. His pothole artwork has covered everything from classics like Vincent van Gogh’s “The Bedroom” to everyday objects like soap and Rocket Pops.

Read more:

• Chicago’s Famous Paintings Are Becoming Pothole Mosaics Thanks To Artist Jim Bachor
• Coronavirus-Themed Pothole Art Debuts In Uptown: ‘It’s An Opportunity For An Unexpected Grin’
• Artist Famous For Filing Potholes With Tiny Mosaics Opens Gallery In Uptown

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