Why Chicago's Roads Are Covered in Craters

Feb. 28, 2008— -- The streets of Chicago look like a lunar landscape. Craterlike potholes cause nerve-racking, bone-jarring, wheel-bending bumps. And avoiding them takes NASCAR skill.

Chicago resident Hemlata Rana said, "I try to go, drive, zigzag on this road and it's terrible."

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The city command center can barely keep up with the potholes —eight times as many as last year. In 2007, Chicago citizens called in 1,000 complaints to the city's 311 nonemergency number. So far this winter, they've called in 8,000 complaints, with the current season among the snowiest and coldest in a decade.

Tom Powers, first deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation, said, "It's been the worst for pothole growth in the last … decade that I've been around."

Engineer Charles Dowding studies potholes, which form over all those cycles of freezing and thawing on Chicago's roads.

"The pavement tends to flex and crack. It crumbles up and gets bounced out of the hole with cars," Dowding said.

Chicago has nearly 8,000 miles of streets and alleys. And it's almost impossible to get from point A to point Z without cursing at least one pothole. Or worse.

At Cassidy Tire in Chicago, manager Melanie Ahern showed ABC News a car for which mechanics had to replace the right and left front bearing — all because of a pothole. Another car she showed us had a bent left front wheel and needed brand-new shocks all around due to pothole damage.

The casualty count is staggering. The city has deployed a small army, 27 crews, attacking the enemy day and night with choreographed precision.

Foreman Richard Potempa said he fixed 300 holes a day, easily. They cover the craters with a gooey mix of asphalt and oil. Since December, city crews have patched at least 60,000 potholes.

Dowding's only hope for a break will be in the spring. Until then, the beating goes on through the rest of the winter.