CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The City of Chicago kicked off road construction season on Wednesday, with a resurfacing project on Archer Avenue near Harlem and with apologies for the inconvenience the work to come will bring.
Mayor Emanuel said the city is preparing to resurface more than 300 miles of streets.
“When I became mayor we were paving 100 miles of streets I’m walking out we’re paving 315 miles of streets. That’s a dramatic difference," he said.
He sort of shrugged off all the potholes as an unavoidable consequence of a hard winter.
“Paving is permanent. Potholes you just fill and they’re miserable,” Emanuel said.
But, he said, they’re working on them.
“Look we had a horrible winter. I don’t think I have to remind anybody the other day in the middle of April we had snow. That tells you what’s happening," he said.
Emanuel said since 2011 the city has paved more than 2,100 miles of roads. And he offered this: “I apologize for the disturbance and also the inconvenience, but when it’s done it will be worth that time and inconvenience.”
CDOT Commissioner Rebecca Schienfeld said, “you’ll be smelling hot asphalt.”
Something she looks forward to.