Butt Buster: Awaiting city, PennDOT promises to fix Passyunk moonscape

JUDGING FROM YOUR emails, many of you sense a credibility gap between the Streets Department's "Operation Smooth Streets" - its alleged "heavy attack on roadway street defects" - and what your rear end channels every time a pothole mocks your shocks and debilitates your debit card.

25 PASSYUNK POTHOLES: After Butt Buster slammed the Streets Department for ignoring 25 potholes on Passyunk Avenue between 24th and 28th streets, a city official called to say that it was PennDOT's responsibility and that I should run a correction.

But the plot thickens! A PennDOT official said his agency has been ready to resurface 2.5 miles of Passyunk, but is waiting for the Streets Department to do a $6.5 million traffic-signal project, which has been delayed by construction-code changes.

Bottom line: PennDOT promised Butt Buster that later this week, it would mill the moonscape several inches deep from 24th to 28th streets to make it drivable until the city replaces the traffic signals in 2012.

Thanks, PennDOT, for thinking outside the hole! And for doing the right thing!

And thanks to Darren Berry, a city hospital worker, for alerting Butt Buster to Pit-iful Passyunk.

LINCOLN DRIVE BLUES: Sherri Dicker, of Overbrook, calls it "The worst!!"

Liz Kent, of Fairmount, wrote: "The entire length of Lincoln Drive between Ridge Avenue and Rittenhouse Street is one pothole after another! I drive it four days a week for my commute and, within a month, my new suspension was shot!"

Butt Buster test drove Kent's route and it went like this: Bang! Ba-Boom! D'oh! S-Bomb! D-Bomb! F-Bomb! Etc.-Bomb!

Butt Buster called a Streets Department official who promised to mill that massive mess this spring. I'm counting on folks like Sherri Dicker and Liz Kent to tell me if that promise is broken.

3RD STREET TRENCHES: Scott Storck, of Old City, wrote about trench-trashed 3rd Street between South and Market streets:

"My new Lexus is no longer new after being broken in on this rib-rattling stretch of pothole paradise. I stopped counting potholes and just focus on my slalom skills."

Yo! Streets Department? Anybody home?

CALL 3-1-1: Report a pothole by calling 3-1-1, and the Streets Department swears it will fix it in three days. Let's test that swear!

POT HOLES? Send your name, neighborhood, description and location of your potholes to: buttbuster@phillynews.com.