Mayor Luke Ravenstahl picked a fitting backdrop to announce a campaign against potholes -- Carnahan Road in Banksville, which looked like a moonscape before public works crews got busy on it yesterday.

Mr. Ravenstahl urged residents to snitch on potholes by calling his 311 information line or visiting a new Web site, pittsburghpothole.com. Nonresidents were invited to call 412-255-CITY (2489).

"It's been a tough season for drivers and crews who are battling Pittsburgh's potholes," Mr. Ravenstahl said. "We're going to do everything we can to combat this now by responding swiftly to every report."

Ed Gaetano, a retired city police officer who lives on Carnahan, said he did more than report a pothole. He turned in the entire street.

"It's unbelievable -- just one hole after another," said Mr. Gaetano, who came out to view the mayor's media event and offer some advice to public works crews.

"Don't do two or three of them and leave six others," he told one worker. He also recalled a time when workers used torches to heat the road surface before filling a crater, and compacted the asphalt.

"Now they just throw it in," he said.

Mr. Ravenstahl said the city would try to respond to calls within three days, but said it might take as much as a week in some cases because of an expected high volume of reports.

He said 50 public works employees and 17 Redd Up Crew members would be deployed in the effort.

The mayor's office said public works patched nearly 44,000 potholes last year, a 65 percent increase from 2007. The campaign will be stepped up this year with the Web site, the invitation to nonresidents to report potholes and $4.5 million from the federal economic stimulus program.

"I am confident that a large portion of this money will be used to improve our infrastructure so that next year, some of our most pothole-riddled roads will be paved," Mr. Ravenstahl said.

"When specific program guidelines become available, I will be working with members of City Council to help formulate an aggressive paving program."

The city maintains about 1,200 miles of roads but does not work on state roads or interstate highways unless there is an emergency. Potholes on those arteries can be reported to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's hot line, 1-800-FIX-ROAD (349-7623).

Rob Kaczorowski, deputy public works director for operations, said that for now, crews will use less-effective cold patch material to fill potholes.

When the weather warms, a more durable hot mixture will be used.

He urged citizens to be specific in their reports -- giving the size of the pothole and nearby intersections or landmarks.

Residents who drive Carnahan will get an extra measure of relief later on -- the road is scheduled for repaving this year, Mr. Kaczorowski said.

Mr. Ravenstahl said this year's bumper crop of potholes is partly an outgrowth of the city's more vigorous plowing and salting of streets. "Unfortunately, we're paying now for our aggressiveness."