Every municipality deals with infrastructure issues. Concrete and asphalt streets cave and crumble under decades of heavy traffic, particularly where colder winters open potholes and cracks in the streets. Champaign, Ill., population 88,000, sees plenty of ice and snow in a Midwest winter. This college town has seen tremendous growth over the past decades and works to repair and maintain its infrastructure to keep up with that growth. Chris Sokolowski, assistant city engineer, spoke with The Municipal about his city’s efforts to ease these sometimes inconvenient but necessary improvement projects for residents.

“I think a common theme among a lot of cities is resources and funding don’t necessarily keep up with the cost increases of construction and materials and expansion for development,” he commented. “We fight that struggle that every municipality fights with funding verses need.”

In Champaign, the city implements an annual concrete street maintenance project. This year, that focus was on a rebuild in Park Terrace, a residential neighborhood.

“Every year, we have three annual maintenance contracts that address issues of different kinds,” he stated. These include resurfacing asphalt streets and ramps, infrastructure maintenance to include alleys and ADA ramps and concrete street maintenance. The last one tackles streets that require more than localized repairs. Old pavement has to be completely removed and new concrete laid. Sokolowski believes that the pavement in question was between 40 and 50 years old.

By taking on two or three of these projects per year, city engineers can move around the city of Champaign to ensure that no area is neglected. There are always plenty of streets to choose from and Sokolowski and his team utilize GIS and other tools to identify areas in most need, giving the streets a pavement condition index rating from zero to 100. They visit locations and speak with both residents and maintenance workers about specific concerns and challenges.

A project consisting of two to three locations takes roughly six months to complete. Pre-construction, the city informs residents of the plan by sending letters and leaving door hangers at affected houses so that residents can be prepared for temporary obstructions of their driveways or sidewalks.

Sokolowski’s team is greatly concerned about community members with limited mobility. City representatives reach out to residents to determine their needs and accommodate them as much as possible throughout the construction project. When a person with mobility issues loses use of their driveway or must park farther from their house due to street projects, “the contractor and/or our staff help them with groceries and figuring out their garbage and things like that,” Sokolowski stated.

It may take longer to tear up and rebuild concrete streets than to resurface with asphalt, but the new concrete pavement should last between 20-30 before needing a full overhaul — though patching will always remain a need. Asphalt roads will often need to be rebuilt in 10-15 years, but Sokolowski explained that oftentimes the problem with these streets arises from the fact that cities like Champaign merely resurfaced concrete roads with asphalt in the 1980s, so the old concrete joints weaken and cause surface cracks in the asphalt.

The city of Champaign tends to build more concrete streets than asphalt ones, as there are several concrete contractors in the city. In cities where there are more asphalt contractors to compete for construction jobs, it may cost less to go that route. Overall, though, Sokolowski reported that “most of the contractors we have are good to work with.”

Streets are an essential aspect of city maintenance, as street conditions can add or decrease a house’s curb appeal, impact safety for pedestrians and bicyclists and cause wear and tear on vehicles. And for Sokolowski, well-maintained streets are “a mental marker of how healthy is a town.”

The city receives the most calls about potholes and cracks in the streets, a fact that is not lost on Sokolowski. “Obviously, the public puts some value to having nice, maintained streets in their area, and we — our council members — work for the public, so they want us to maintain the streets in a good manner and that’s what we’re here for.” There are jokes aplenty about summertime being construction season in the Midwest, but Sokolowski put it succinctly when he said: “No one loves a construction company when it shows up, but when it’s done, it’s always great.

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