Take heart, fellow sufferers. If winter potholes have turned the once-smooth ride of your late-model, four-wheel navigational tool into the creaks and groans of an old-fashioned, top-loading clothes washer, help is finally on the way.

As decreed in Trenton last week, the transportation gods are dispatching 400 asphalt surgeons and nine gas-powered "hit-man" machines -- called pothole killers -- to pour 2,809 tons of patching material on the wrinkles, ruts and gashes that have scarred our roads during the last five months of snow, rain and thaw.

The state Department of Transportation will spend about $6.1 million on this elaborate operation. It works out to $1.04 per licensed driver, but don't worry about the cost. Although this kind of surgery is largely cosmetic, we're all covered for the repairs under the newly refinanced state Transportation Trust Fund and matching federal grants.

By June, DOT promises to use this money to fill 350,000 of the holes that have pounded our shock absorbers, assaulted our suspensions and broken our axles. Road departments from New Jersey's 21 counties and 566 municipalities will likely triple that figure for the asphalt pathways under their jurisdiction.

As a public service, the Road Warrior has again assembled a team of sharp-eyed readers to help track down some of North Jersey's worst, deepest, most flagrant road-surface atrocities. The result is our annual Black Hole awards, a list we present -- free of charge or favor -- to DOT and local road agencies to ensure that these blemishes somehow do not go unnoticed.

Readers are encouraged to e-mail additional nominations to us at the address below or directly to DOT at njcommuter.com. Potholes can also be phoned in directly to the agency at (800) POTHOLE. DOT attempts to respond to pothole complaints within 72 hours.

Worst highway stretch: Route 46, Ridgefield Park, especially the unartfully patched Hackensack River bridge, a chronically corrugated surface that might as well be cobblestone. Runner-up is the rubble that passes for Route 1-9 in Jersey City, which reader Bill Murtha suspects might be kept that way as a safety measure. "No matter what type of car or truck you drive," said the Lyndhurst man, "you must slow down or risk busting a rim or tire."

Rockiest highway entrance: The Jones Road ramp to eastbound Route 4 in Englewood. This lumpy, bumpy and neglected entrance, which claimed this dubious distinction last year, remains in a class by itself.

Worst suburban stretch, residential: West Clinton Avenue, Bergenfield. This 10-block swath, from Washington Avenue to the Tenafly border, is uneven in the middle of the road, and worse by its sewer grates, said Marcye Satarsky. "I fantasize that one day I'll lose a wheel down a grate in an attempt to maneuver around another car," said the Fair Lawn woman.

Worst suburban stretch, commercial: Booker Street off Old Hook Road in Westwood. This crumbling two-block swath from Carver Avenue to Tillman Street is so neglected that one Harrington Park reader prefers to use the parking lot of nearby Hoffman Floors. "I've never seen this road paved in the 23 years I've had my license," she said. Pitted, rutted Jefferson Avenue near the Seville Diner and rail station several blocks away also belongs in the Road Warrior Hall of Shame.

Worst urban stretch, commercial: A tie. Grove Street, Paterson, the one block between West Railway and Getty avenues, has deep potholes. But Polito Avenue in Lyndhurst between Route 3 and Rutherford Avenue outside the Marriott Courtyard and the Medieval Times restaurant is longer and contains wider craters.

Dr. Bergen and Mr. Hyde Award: Jones Road north of Route 4 to the four-way stop at Linden Avenue in Englewood has finally received a well-deserved paving. So has the four blocks south of the highway. But the rest of the northbound trip to East Palisade Avenue remains a concrete washboard.

Most unlikely spot: Liberty Street off Route 17 in East Rutherford. A road leading to the huge Federal Reserve complex should not resemble the texture of a tattered, rumpled dollar bill.

Most improved road, urban: A Silk City tie between Chamberlain Avenue and East Railway Avenue, both in Paterson. The paving job on Chamberlain has lifted this residential-commercial neighborhood. The three-block stretch of East Railway through the Farmer's Market has helped make shopping there fun again. But its parallel twin on the other side of the tracks -- West Railway Avenue -- rivals Grove Street for worst commercial stretch.

If you've wrecked your axle, undercarriage or wheels on any of these potholes or others, you could try getting reimbursed by filing a claim with the town or county. If it's a state road, try calling the New Jersey Treasurer's Office at (609) 984-7757.

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