CHICAGO - Mayor Rahm Emanuel today visited construction crews with the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) at one of the first residential street resurfacing projects of the year on 59th Street and Normal Avenue in the Washington Park neighborhood, one of 800 blocks of residential streets planned to be resurfaced in 2012. 

The City’s $28.8 million residential street resurfacing program employs 115 workers annually from several labor unions and is a key part of Building a New Chicago, a comprehensive $7.3 billion infrastructure renewal program put forward by Mayor Emanuel. 

Building a New Chicago is one of the largest investments in infrastructure in the City’s history. The program will touch nearly every aspect of the city’s infrastructure network, create more than 30,000 jobs over the next three years, and require an unprecedented level of coordination between city departments, utilities and aldermen.

“From the street lights above, to the sewer lines below, and everything in between, we are “Building a New Chicago,” Mayor Emanuel said.  “That comprehensive goal needs coordination of resources.  We can’t be pulling in opposite directions.” 

CDOT began its street and alley grinding work nearly six weeks earlier than usual this season, thanks to favorable weather and efficiency improvements that eliminated the backlog of requests for pothole-repair services.  The resurfacing project at 59th and Normal is one of the first of the residential streets of the year to be repaved, which are selected as by aldermen as part of their menu program.   

These 800 residential blocks to be resurfaced by CDOT crews are in addition to the arterial street resurfacing program that will begin later this month. As part of Building a New Chicago, the City plans to resurface more than 2,000 miles of streets over the next decade – nearly half of the total miles in Chicago.

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