At a village board meeting this month Oak Park trustees approved a measure to repave 22 alleys, or parts of alleys, in the village this summer.
The officials finalized an agreement for $2,552,619 with R.W. Dunteman Company, which will carry out the work.
In order to determine which alleys would be repaved first, the village used a scale of 0-100 to determine their condition, with 100 being a brand-new alley. According to Bill McKenna, the village's engineer, Oak Park has been working on its alleys since 2002, and does approximately 25 alleys each year as part of an ongoing program. There are about 660 alleys in the village, and almost one-third of them have been replaced thus far. In two years, when the current program is complete, about half should be done.
However, construction costs have risen, forcing the village to remove some of the planned alleys from the repaving effort. The village will notify residents who live along those segments that the work has been canceled. Last fall, the village abandoned plans to repave six alleys, and notified affected residents at that time.
Municipalities like this can benefit by working with a flyer printing company to create a mailer to explain issues to residents. Oak Park did this last year, but future plans could include adding a map of projected work areas, as well as those spots that have been taken off the list.
