September 5, 2014

Mayor Emanuel Marks Halfway Point For 2014 Street Resurfacing

City Departments and Utilities Have Already Resurfaced 175 Miles, More than was Completed in All of 2011; 355 Miles of Chicago Streets and Alleys to be Resurfaced In 2014

Mayor's Press Office    312.744.3334

Mayor Rahm Emanuel visited a Department of Transportation street resurfacing crew today and announced that the City has repaved 175 miles of roads in 2014, halfway to completing the plan of restoring more than 355 miles of streets and alleys across Chicago this year. The 175 miles of roads repaved this year already exceeds the 155 miles resurfaced in all of 2011.

“Whether it’s plowing our roads in the winter or repaving them in the spring and summer, we’re making sure that the City of Chicago can keep moving in all seasons,” said Mayor Emanuel. “We are investing in every neighborhood and Building a New Chicago block by block, street by street, and community by community.”

Mayor Emanuel made the announcement during a visit to the 5700 block of South Monitor Avenue, which is one of more than 500 blocks that have already been resurfaced by CDOT in-house construction crews this year.

By the end of the year, under the Mayor’s Building a New Chicago infrastructure investment program, CDOT, the Department of Water Management (DWM), private contractors and utilities will have resurfaced more than 1,000 miles of streets since 2011 (155 miles in 2011; 269 miles in 2012; 290 miles in 2013; and 355 miles in 2014). Combined nearly a quarter of Chicago’s 4,600 miles of streets will have been resurfaced.

In 2014, CDOT plans to repave more than 107 miles of arterial streets, 90 miles of residential streets and five miles of alleys. Gas, electric and telecommunication utilities are expected to repave 20 miles of streets as part of their infrastructure work. DWM has also increased their workload in 2014, to install 85 miles of new water mains, 21 miles of new sewer mains, relining 51 miles of sewer mains, and install 15,000 new water meters. DWM will also repave a total of 133 miles of roadway.

With better coordination on infrastructure improvement projects through CDOT’s Project Management Office, both departments and utilities worked together to reduce the amount of project conflicts that would open up a street more than once. By setting new standards for restoring the public way after construction, the utilities resurfaced more miles of Chicago streets. This led to a savings of approximately $14 million in 2013 alone.

 

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