Mayor Rahm Emanuel today announced that the City of Chicago has repaved or reconstructed more than 2,000 miles of streets and alleys under his watch, including more than 225 miles in 2018 to date, improving quality of life and safety for everyone making their way through the City’s neighborhoods. The work was part of an unprecedented push to upgrade the City’s transportation infrastructure as part of the Mayor’s Building a New Chicago program. During the same time period, the City has also installed more than 60,000 ADA compliant crosswalk ramps.

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“In every neighborhood across Chicago, we are seeing the benefits of sustained investment over the last seven years,” Mayor Emanuel said. “These types of investments aren’t just about moving people around the City and fighting potholes, but also about moving our City and all of its neighborhoods forward into a more prosperous future.”

In 2018 so far, the City has repaved 225 miles towards the goal of 300 miles this year. By year’s end, the City expects to have repaved more than 2,100 miles of streets and alleys under Mayor Emanuel’s leadership. The work has been done by the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and the Department of Water Management (DWM), along with sister agencies and utility companies that have paved roads after completing utility improvements.

“CDOT is extremely proud to have led the charge for Mayor Emanuel’s Building a New Chicago Program,” CDOT Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld said. “At the same time that we are improving the condition of our roadways, we are also making it easier and safer for pedestrians to safely get around our neighborhoods. We are installing new ADA compliant sidewalk ramps and in many locations we are adding sidewalk bumpouts and pedestrian refuge islands on major arterial routes that make it safer and easier for pedestrians to cross busy streets.”

In order to ensure that resources are being used as efficiently as possible, the work has been coordinated by CDOT’s Project Coordination Office to reduce the amount of project conflicts that would require opening up a street more than once. These coordination efforts have led to estimated savings of close to $140 million since 2012.

Under the banner of the Mayor’s Building a New Chicago program, CDOT has also undertaken 44 Streetscape projects in neighborhoods across the City. These projects modernize the curbs, sidewalks and streetlights, plant trees, install street furniture and in some cases neighborhood identifiers. All of these projects support local economic development and improve quality of life for Chicagoans.

CDOT has also spearheaded a number of critical investments in bridges and viaducts during the Mayor’s tenure. The Department has completed 32 projects that involved constructing new structures or rehabilitating existing bridges, worth a total cost of $733 million. CDOT currently has seven additional bridge projects in various stages of construction worth approximately $158 million.

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