With winter lurking around the corner, road repair crews are rushing to fix pothole-strewn streets while they’ve got weather on their side.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Thursday the city has repaved 255 miles of roads so far in 2014. He wants to fix 100 more miles before year’s end.
“We used to do about 175 miles a year of paving. From now on, we're never going below 300 miles of paving,” Emanuel said.
Last week, the mayor proposed a two percent increase in parking fees at downtown garages to raise the $10 million in extra funding he wants to patch potholes.
If the city meets its target for this year, crews will have repaved 1,000 miles of streets since 2011 – or nearly a quarter of all Chicago’s roads, according to the mayor.
In the meantime, drivers stuck in traffic along Fullerton Ave. expressed frustration with construction delays but said it’s a small price to pay.
“(The traffic is) awful,” said driver Jack Seymour. “But I’d rather have a little bit of traffic and smooth roads than bumps that mess up my car.”
