CHICAGO STREET POTHOLE PROBLEM MAY BE SOLVED BY U.S. FUNDING - Well, Partly!
ROUGHLY 140 MILES OF CHICAGO ARTERIAL STREETS TO BE RESURFACED THROUGH 2010, FAR MORE THAN IN 2007, 2008!
If you live in Chicago, and your drive many of our busiest streets - Western Avenue, in front of Dean's Team Chicago World Headquarters, Lincoln Avenue, Chicago Avenue, Lake Park Boulevard - your daily drive usually includes a real-life obstacle course containing hundreds, if not thousands, of unfilled pothole craters each spring.
The City of Chicago typically fills thousands of these axle-destroying denizens each year, but Chicago Transportation Commissioner Tom Byrne acknowledges there may be MILLIONS of potholes each year citywide.
But there may be a bit of relief coming to Chicago, according to Jon Hilkevitch is his Getting Around Blog in the Chicago Tribune on May 11th. Federal Stimulus Funds will be tapped to help resurface about 140 miles of Chicago busy streets between now and the end of next year. That compares to the usual 35 miles of city streets resurfaced each year, and only a few miles completed between 2007 and 2008.
State funding for Chicago Road Improvement was severely cut back after 2006. Last year, the only major road resurfacing project about town involved Lake Shore Drive, on the North Side along the Lakefront. Roughly 1.5 miles of The Drive were resurfaced last year - a very pockmarked section between Irving Park Road and Foster Street, near the North End of Lake Shore Drive.
Even that recent project, however, was only a temporary stopgap. City officials predict many millions more will need to be spent to completely reconstruct Chicago's famous LSD, as the road has not been extensively overhauled since it was completed in the 1950's.
This year's Chicago Road Projects will be funded from approximately $86 Million in Federal Stimulus Economic Funding. Most earmarked roads will be only resurfaced. A few, however, will be completely reconstructed. Hilkevitch's story outlines which roads.
The more thorough reconstruction involves completely rebuilding the road from the concrete base through the top layer of road asphalt. Such a reconstruction will likely provide a smooth road surface for about 20 or more years. Simple resurfacing, however - replacing the top layer of asphalt and making only minor repairs to the concrete road base - generally has a 10-year lifespan.
Both methods are costly, and can eat up Federal Funds very quickly. According to the Chicago Department of Transportation, complete reconstruction of a four-lane road in Chicago costs an estimated $8.4 Million per mile. Resurfacing the same road would run about $1.3 Million for each mile.
Safe City Driving, folks! Proceed with caution!
DEAN MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
