Current Mood: Cool

We’ve had lots of foul weather this winter, which means the road crews have been kept busy with maintaining the roads. Between the salt and the plowing, it makes our roads really brittle and potholes develop. Not only do these make for a rough ride, but they can really damage your car. They can blow tires, mess up your alignment, even break stuff. You run over them and think “Ugh, this hole really needs to be filled!” But you know what? If the Department of Transportation doesn’t know the hole exists, they can’t very well come patch it, now can they? It’s not like DOT is driving around looking for the elusive pothole. Nope, you have to let them know.

Now I’m a native Missourian, but I currently live in Illinois. Most of the people and stuff I know is of Missouri, so here’s how you go about reporting a pothole in MO:

Dial 1-888-ASK-MODOT and tell them the location of the pothole. Include the street name, direction (eastbound, westbound), and general area (between x street and y street). They will generally be out within the next business day or two.
Go to their website and report it. This is a pretty new feature, as MoDOT just posted about it on their blog. It also includes a pretty cool video about why roads fall apart.
You can also follow @MoDOT on Twitter.

If you live over here on the east side, IDOT (that makes me snicker) also has ways to report potholes:

Call 1-800-452-4368, use the same info as stated above.
Go to their website and contact them. It’s not nearly as cool as MoDOT’s report-a-hole form, but it suffices.