Cook County highway superintendent defends pothole policy

The Cook County highway superintendent Thursday defended a recent policy that keeps some pothole repair crews off the streets one out of every 10 days as a way to save fuel.

Superintendent Rupert Graham had been criticized by some county commissioners over the policy after the Sun-Times wrote about it Thursday.

In addition to roadwork, crews normally spend some time every day in maintenance yards maintaining heavy equipment or filling sandbags, Graham said Thursday. The new policy simply devotes one day to that work exclusively so that vehicles are not used and fuel is saved, he said.

Graham said the county is still repairing the same number of potholes under the policy as it did previously.

"All we're doing is taking the same personnel - and managing their time," said Graham.

Still, some commissioners seemed unimpressed, saying that until all the potholes are filled on county roads, no road workers should be doing odd jobs in a maintenance yard.

"Your 'no-drive' policy aimed at 'saving fuel' smacks of wasted resources. There is work to be done, there are workers to do it and your policy is to pay them not to repair roads," wrote Republican Commissioner Peter Silvestri in a memo to Graham Thursday.