Project Pothole: Beautifying Chicago One Road Bump at a Time

Project pothole is underway in Chicago and it’s surprisingly not run or sponsored by the city at all. A new saying is emerging about road construction in Chicago and it’s not coming from the highway safety committee… “If you can’t/won’t fix it… decorate it” and one artist is doing just that. Potholes are a problem in most cities in the US – particularly the ones with winter frost heaves that expand the cracks year by year creating bigger problems and more of a mess. Well in Chicago, one artist, Jim Bachor, was tired of looking at holes in the road and waiting for them to be filled, so he decided to create a unique mosaic display in several potholes around the city.

Bachor uses the Chicago city flag design in some of his pothole art. And some versions even hold phone numbers to local auto repair shops, while others simply read “POTHOLE.” His most recent installment north of downtown Chicago — “#21914” — pokes fun at the huge number of potholes that the City of Chicago recently stated as still yet not repaired.

According to the Huffington Post, while his mosaic art isn’t a permanent solution to the city’s pothole problem, it’s at least a small fix, he says. The city hasn’t shut down his project, and some community members have expressed gratitude.

After his first project, one neighbor stopped to thank him. “And then 15 minutes later, he came back with a coffee and a Danish for me,” Bachor says, “and so I thought that was really cool.”

View a slideshow HERE to see many of his works of art and share with us on social media what you think about this artistic way to fill potholes on Twitter @smartcars1 using hashtag #potholeart.

If you aren’t lucky enough to have one of Jim’s works of art on your street but still have pot holes you can report them to the City of Chicago ONLINE HERE.