Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced today that road construction season is in full swing across the City of Chicago. Paving crews have already completed more than 65 miles of street paving this year, and are on track to fulfill the Mayor’s commitment of paving more than 300 miles of city streets this year. The administration has been working with Alderman in all 50 wards to identify more locations in need of paving.

“We are making long-term investments to improve our infrastructure and provide a better quality of life for Chicagoans in neighborhoods across the city," said Mayor Emanuel. "And we are not letting up. We’ve already paved more than 65 miles of streets this year, well on our way to 300 miles, because every resident deserves streets that are paved and passable to get to work, school, or just around their neighborhood.”

At Mayor Emanuel’s direction, City departments and private utilities have greatly stepped up paving efforts. In 2014, City departments, private contractors and utilities combined to pave a record 343 miles of roadways, including 97 miles of residential street resurfacings. In 2015, the city’s goal is to pave another 300 miles of streets. Since 2011 more than 1,000 miles of Chicago streets have been paved – amounting to almost a quarter of the city’s streets.

“CDOT works very closely with members of the City Council to review the condition of streets, sidewalks and other critical infrastructure,” CDOT Commission Rebekah Scheinfeld said. “During the coming months, CDOT will be continuing our work all across Chicago to deliver the neighborhood improvements that our residents deserve.”

To ensure the City is not only increasing investment in street paving projects, but also investing more efficiently, the City has improved coordination on infrastructure projects. Through CDOT’s Project Coordination Office, City infrastructure departments and utilities have worked together to reduce the amount of project conflicts that would require opening up a street more than once. These coordination efforts have led to a savings of $47 million since 2012.

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