West Cook News

The Burr Ridge Village Board of Trustees recently discussed and adopted the village's 2023 capital improvements plan, including a new streets program.

During the village board's Jan. 9 meeting, the trustees discussed planned capital improvements for this year, with a focus on the details of the new streets program recommended by the Streets Policy Committee. Public Works Director David Preissig said choosing which streets would receive what treatments was largely based on getting the most bang for the village's buck.

"How we came up with that list of streets is just trying to time the right treatment on the right road at the right time," Preissig said. "Between a resurfacing - that's the most intrusive and the most expensive - We don't want to be on there more than the 20-year (repaving) cycle that we're already at. Some of our roads are getting to 23 years, so we need to extend the pavement life of the streets that we have that are in good condition. So through processes like crack sealing, patching, cold patching to other methods like that, we can try to extend the life of that road to keep that cycle of resurfacing longer, to keep our overall cost down as well."

Preissig gave a summary of the 2022 streets program, in which the village resurfaced the Wood Creek subdivision, Grant Court, 82nd Street, 89th Street, Cabernet Court, Longwod Court and Lee Drive. The resurfacing program also included some streets the village hadn't previously repaired because they were annexed in from the township in recent years, Preissig said. 

Preissig said that the 2022 program came in at $158,000 under budget, because of projects like 89th Street requiring much less patching than originally thought. Despite a seven-week labor strike, the village was able to finish most of the project aside from some minor patch work, he added, which was a lot better than a lot of towns in the area.

"A lot of towns either didn't get it done, or they were resurfacing in December," Preissig said.

The village does a street survey every two years, Preissig said, meaning there isn't one planned for 2023. A street survey rates each of the roads on different distress factors to determine how to repair each road every year. Preissig gave some examples of streets that need repairs, including those in several subdivisions. Some, like Forest Edge subdivision, are in need of some work but can be delayed until after some scheduled construction is finished later this year. 

The budget for streets in 2023 will be around $955,000 Preissig said.