The potholes actually begin at Harper and go all the way to Kenwood.

Issue Closed

The street has snow on it. How can it be fixed? Did anyone see anyone out there working?

I really can't tell if the street has been repaired due to the snow covering & when might it have been done? Dwight Banks

They haven't done anything! Why is this closed????????????

Your request has been accepted. Your service request ID is http://servicetracker.cityofchicago.org/requests/52e3185e0163881c079395f9

I TRIED TO LEAVE A COMMENT WITH MY MOBILE PHONE EARLIER AND GOT AN ERROR MESSAGE. THEY HAVE NOT FIXED A SINGLE POTHOLE ON THAT STREET. I DROVE OVER IT AND TOOK A GOOD LOOK. NOT ONE FIXED. WHO HAS THE ALDERMAN'S PHONE NUMBER?

I believe that service request ID means it's on the books to be repaired, but clearly nothing has been repaired.

Here is a photo of the street.

I contacted the Alderman's office today, and have been assured that the street will be fixed. It may take a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed.

Issue Closed

Again there is no evidence that anything has been done. The aldermazn has been contacted again.......

Your request has been accepted. Your service request ID is http://servicetracker.cityofchicago.org/requests/52fcf325016313d9e6364e23

I expressed the sentiment today to the Alderman's office that this getting a bit silly. I also conveyed that I would hate to have to start making my way up the food chain. I'm waiting for them to call me back with the City's response.

If the officials who keep closing this could comment on what, if anything, has been done that would be helpful.

Well, I talked yet again to the Alderman's office, and they keep assuring me that this will be fixed. It's been a month. I was given two opposing, inaccurate reasons why the request has been closed twice with no remedy or explanation.

Funny, but the Inspector General published the results of an 2013 audit in January stating specifically that, "At least 26% of pothole repairs exceeded CDOT’s target of 7 days from request to completion, and at least 24% of street light repairs exceeded the target of 4 days. In response, CDOT noted that it strives to meet all of its service goals and agrees with the OIG’s recommendations to address staffing concerns with the Office of Budget and Management and to continue to assign employees to priority services. The audit also found that the service delivery data the City presented to the public was inaccurate or incomplete in two locations:

The Service Delivery Metrics website was inaccurate. 53% of actual service requests were not reported, making CDOT’s 2012 performance metrics for pothole and street light repairs appear better than they truly were."

and, "CDOT took immediate actions to fix these errors and, in its response, notes that it recently launched an independent performance tracking tool on its website."

Exactly what is happening here, except that the pothole tracker website proved to me last week that IT was inaccurate. I checked to see if some of the fix locations had actually been fixed. Nope. How could they claim to have fixed 235 potholes in one location alone when there weren't even that many potholes around? This was on 55th.

http://chicagoinspectorgeneral.org/uncategorized/department-of-transportation-service-request-performance-reporting-audit/

I've heard that the six million dollars allocated for potholes had to be redirected to salt purchasing. due to the fact that salt previously purchased has been delayed.

Why was it delayed? I heard that channel 5 will have a piece on potholes tonite at 10pm. Wonder what will be said?

Here is the news item from last night:

http://www.csnchicago.com/article/city-trying-stay-ahead-chronic-pothole-problem-0

City Trying to Stay Ahead of Chronic Pothole Problem

“There appears to be more 8,000 outstanding complaints this week. But CDOT spokesman Peter Scales insists the accurate number is half of that because so many complaints are duplicate calls for the same pothole. When NBC 5 Investigates took the same data to the streets, it revealed a surprising discovery. Several of the complaints were more than a year old. “

I hunted and pecked through the 311 Service request website (the search feature doesn't work) and found our request under 14-00088868. The website indicates that 10 potholes were patched on 1/24/2014 at 1363 E 52nd street. Obviously, this is not true.

https://data.cityofchicago.org/Service-Requests/311-Service-Requests-Pot-Holes-Reported/7as2-ds3y

Of course, there is a disclaimer, "The City makes no warranty, representation, or guaranty as to the content, accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of any of the data provided at this website."

Trudy,

Thanks so much for staying on top of this. The whole neighborhood benefits from your perseverance! Honestly, the potholes are so bad and so numerous on the street that a complete re-paving seems like the only good solution to me.

David Whited

You know, if the City would just come out and say that they will put this in the budget for repaving when it gets warm out again, I would be happier.

Hello, everyone. Well the infrastructure problems the City has with fixing potholes is coming out in the news more and ore:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/mitchell/25750311-452/pothole-alert-drive-with-caution.html

Mayor Emanuel has also added six pothole crews to CDOT for pothole repair:

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/City-Hires-More-Crews-to-Fix-Chicagos-Pothole-Problem-246699301.html

In the meantime, I have checked four more locations that were listed on the pothole tracker as having up to 120 potholes filled at a single location: 5300 S Woodlawn, 5400 S Woodlawn, 5500 S Ellis, and 5600 S Ellis. All requested well after our request was opened and all closed within four days. Guess what? Not fixed. I did find a big hole at 5300 S Woodlawn that is seriously impeding traffic flow. Only one lane can pass at a time on a two lane street. I took some photos. Also, on February 13 I looked at the tracker site and there apparently were dozens of repairs along 51st street. Nope.

In the meantime, I am going to take a deep breath and file a repair request for 5210 S Dorchester (they're supposed to fix all the potholes on a block) and 5120 S Dorchester. Fingers crossed. Feel free to vote.

The new requests are #956115 and #956112

Here is a web site that gives the number and locations of OPEN requests for pothole repair:

http://potholes.311services.org/

I don't know how accurate it is, as this request is listed as having just been opened on 2/13/2014. But it helps.

Hello, everyone. Well, I got optimistic that since some potholes on Dorchester got fixed, then the crews would surely attend to 52nd. I was wrong. I've decided to write an email to our Alderman's office voicing my concern that requests opened well after this one were being attended to first. I would like to know if they are just going to re-pave completely. Here's the text:

"I am writing to follow up on the service request 901726 (14-00088868), originally opened on January 18, 2014. Potholes covering whole block of 52nd St. between Dorchester and Kenwood Ave

It still has not been fixed. There were two other requests fixed on the 5100 and 5200, namely #956115 and #956112. These were opened on 2/24/2014 and were fixed within 4 days. Why did the crew not do any work on 52nd? I have been promised multiple times that this job will get completed but that there were many other jobs in the queue before me. Why were the requests opened on February 24 fixed ahead of the one filed on January 18? I don't understand. Is the street going to be re-paved completely instead?

In the meantime, I have checked four more locations that were listed on the pothole tracker as having up to 120 potholes filled at a single location: 5300 S Woodlawn, 5400 S Woodlawn, 5500 S Ellis, and 5600 S Ellis. All requested well after our request was opened and all closed within four days. Guess what? Not fixed.

Sincerely, Trudy Bolin."

I filed two more requests, one for a series of bad potholes on 51st (I have to cross the center line in order to avoid them), and another for a nasty hole and large chunks of concrete on the offramp from Lake Shore Drive at Hyde Park Blvd. Issue ID: 961186 and 961184. Feel free to vote.

http://en.seeclickfix.com/issues/961184
http://en.seeclickfix.com/issues/961186

I was poking around, and I found that Indianapolis has what looks like a really good pot hole tracker. Check it out:

http://maps.indy.gov/IndyPotholeViewer/

It has all kinds of data all in one place. It looks like it has a better chance of being accurate. Trends, a pie chart, open requests and how many duplicates there are for each location, a place to open a request, etc., etc. Chicago, by comparison, has four systems that clearly aren't working together: 311 service requests (an most-of-the-time unsearchable list of requests and outcomes) that don't match up with the open service request website, and which don't match up with the pothole tracker launched in Chicago this year because the City was having trouble measuring its success in keeping up with potholes. The irony. ClickFix, well, I don't know where ClickFix fits into the Chicago request/tracking scheme.

Granted, Chicago is a bigger city, but surely there is a programmer out there who can handle big data.

Oh, and it looks like our Mayor is now auditing the contractors who re-paved city streets recently because he feels that they may be a part of the problem. I have no idea if this will end up being a significant contribution. The re-surfaced streets that I've seen look ok to me, but I'm not checking too hard, either.

http://www.wlsam.com/common/page.php?pt=Emanuel%27s+pothole+pledge&id=88113&is_corp=0

The repairs on Dorchester are already breaking down in places.

Our handy pothole tracker website says that 3 potholes were filled yesterday at 5221 S Dorchester. We certainly do need it again. Did anyone see any work being done?

5221 S DORCHESTER AVE
SERVICE REQUEST NUMBER
14-00215611
COMPLETION DATE
03/06/2014
NUMBER OF POTHOLES FILLED ON BLOCK 3

I got a good chuckle out of this website:

http://thepotholestore.com/

"Our mission statement has always been simple: To provide the highest quality 100% Authentic Chicago pothole products at the lowest prices.

These fourteen simple words have guided us from day one.

These fourteen words have demanded that we only use the ripest and freshest crumbling asphalt from around Chicagoland.

These fourteen words have been our template throughout our tireless dedication.

These fourteen words have made us the largest purveyor of 100% authentic Chicago pothole products in the world.

Repeat…The World.

We humbly welcome you to The Pothole Store, where only the best pothole products are sold. All our products come with a Certificate Of Authenticity (COA) assuring that you’re only getting the very best.

When you open one of our products for the first time and take in it’s rich fresh aroma, you’ll say to yourself…”That’s Good Pothole”.

Thanks again for visiting."

Called the Alderman again. They said they got my email, and they forwarded it to the City. Waiting for a response. I also pointed out that this is in the 311 service request system as being fixed on January 24, 10 potholes patched. They seemed pretty puzzled.

Called the alderman again two days ago. They were just about as frustrated as we. But, at least 52nd was addressed. I wish they would have cleared the leaves and sticks out of the hole before filling them, though...

So, this request has now been addressed, and it remains open. The other two requests for Dorchester which they gave a nod to remain open. So, is the procedure to fix potholes and leave the requests open, and to close requests which are not fixed? Am I missing something?