Many Joliet street/sidewalk repairs won’t be completed until 2023

Much of the city street and sidewalk work still scheduled for this year will get pushed back to 2023 after a construction season complicated by a quarry strike and supply chain issues.

But much still will get done, Joliet Public Works Director Greg Ruddy told a City Council committee this week in a progress report as winter weather approached.

“It’s just been a snake pit year,” Ruddy said at one point, noting that a cement shortage following a strike interrupted the supply of road and sidewalk materials.

The combination slowed down an accelerated sidewalk repair program planned for 2022 but did not cripple it.

Most of the neighborhood street resurfacing did not get done, although major street work has been completed.

The city stepped up its sidewalk replacement program in 2022.

The city scheduled sidewalk replacement at 214 locations around town. Work has been completed at 91 locations and will be completed in at least 32 other locations.

Sidewalk replacement can be done at temperatures as low as 35 degrees, Ruddy said.

But whatever can’t be completed this year won’t be started until the spring.

“We don’t want to get into a situation were a sidewalk is removed for replacement and we can’t get to it because of weather,” Ruddy said.

Scheduled sidewalk replacements included 102 in the area of the city due west of Route 59, and 32 of those have been completed. In an area between Route 59 and Larkin Avenue, 67 of 77 scheduled replacements have been completed. In the area east of Larkin, 24 of 35 replacements are done.

Joliet this year awarded three contracts totaling $991,000 for sidewalk replacement. The city share of that spending is $750,000, while residents also kicked in a large share through the 50-50 program that divides the cost of sidewalk replacement. The city plans to spend $1 million in 2023 on sidewalk replacement.

Three contracts for street resurfacing around town totaled $7.3 million, which included $2.3 million in Motor Fuel Tax revenue provided by the state.

Two major streets still to be completed are sections of County Line Road, from Pyramid Drive to the city limit, and Caton Farm Road, between Essington Road and the Interstate 55 East Frontage Road. Both will be paved next week, Ruddy said.

Less than half of the major street projects planned citywide were completed at the time Ruddy gave his report Monday. But he said that up to 87% could be done by the end of the year.

Only 4% of neighborhood streets on the east side scheduled this year are expected to be completed. About 37% of streets scheduled on the west side are expected to be done.

“Right out of the box, we’ll be doing those in the spring,” Ruddy said.

The city expects to get a head start on 2023 resurfacing projects by awarding a contract in December.