By: Diane Benjamin
This slide was in the streets presentation at last night’s Bloomington City Council:
The entire presentation will be on the City website sometime today, right now it isn’t.
Remember when I told you the City could push a button or two and know how many lanes miles are rated the worst? Obviously they could.
I reported 61.28 lane miles of the worst roads: https://blnnews.com/2024/05/16/final-roads-report/
This slide shows 56.2 + 1.5 for a total of 57.7 lane miles of really bad roads. The difference is likely a few roads that were resurfaced this year and updated for this chart but not the on-line map I used. I know Oakland is on my list, see this web page for roads the City has done this year: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/departments/public-works/bloomington-streets#ad-image-2
This slide shows how and why the roads got so bad – years of not spending enough to maintain them:
Compare that with this chart that used to be on the City website – it shows ZERO was spent in 2000: https://blnnews.com/2019/03/15/bloomingtons-resurface-history/
Roads weren’t a priority because nobody names roads after public officials. You have to think big, like an aquatics center: https://www.25newsnow.com/2024/05/28/fairview-aquatic-center-renamed-honor-former-normal-mayor/
Maybe the underpass will get named Koos Crossing!
Hit play to hear “almost 60% of streets are rating a 6 or better”. Does it feel like 60% of the roads are good?
My daughter was marched in the Memorial Day parade monday in Bloomington. Afterwards she was complaining about tripping in the potholes along the parade route. They need to take the money the spend on all the studies and use that on materials and labor to fix the roads.
Not enough favors and kickbacks for real work.