A Million?

Evidently, Chicago builds roads out of Irish soda bread:

• Days after frustrated west side residents filled some potholes on their own, the city of Chicago is pledging more resources against the unwelcome sign of spring on area roads.
  
  Transportation Commissioner Tom Byrne says he's calling back seasonal workers to combat the potholes, beefing up the response to 30 crews assigned to the job.
  
  
• The city 311 center claims the pothole backlog is about 13 thousand, but Byrne said there may be millions.

A million freaking potholes? Don't any of these road building contracts come with guarantees?

But don't worry - "wolfpacks" are on the way!

• The new strategy involves bringing back seasonal workers early and assigning "wolfpacks" of pothole repair crews to concentrate on streets with the most damage, Byrne said.

  The Illinois Department of Transportation will also lend a hand by filling potholes on state-designated routes in Chicago, said Carmen Iacullo, IDOT operations manager in the Chicago area.

  City crews have repaired more than 300,000 potholes since December, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation. But the huge backlog -- and anger from drivers over poor road conditions -- calls for extraordinary measures, officials said.

We still want to see the citizen patch job on 4800 Van Buren outlast a city patch.