Governor Ryan Announces Program to Fix Winter-Damaged Roads -- Southern Illinois

SPRINGFIELD -- Governor George H. Ryan today announced a $78 million spring road repair program to speed the fix-up of roads throughout the state that were damaged by the winter weather. Highways in southern Illinois have been targeted for $2.6 million in road repairs.

Thanks to Illinois FIRST funding road projects, IDOT has the flexibility to finance the Spring Road Repair Program. The Illinois FIRST five-year highway program will be announced in April.

"In the very southern part of the state, Illinois 13 took a beating this winter," Governor Ryan said. "That road is important for a lot of people who live and work in Southern Illinois, driving on it from Carbondale to Shawneetown. We'll be patching and resurfacing more than 35 miles of that highway through five different counties."

Projects for Southern Illinois include $1.35 million that will be used to repair sections of IL 13. In Mt. Vernon, entire sections of Illinois 37 will be torn out and replaced. A section of I-57, stretching 18 miles, will be patched from Cairo to Ullin.

"The harsh weather we had in December and January, along with the freeze-thaw cycles we normally experience during the winter months, caused damage to many of our highways," Ryan said. "This program will provide repairs to more than 300 miles of highways throughout Illinois, and will help us restore the riding surface of these highways as quickly as possible."

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) will solicit bids for most of the repair work on April 27. The work will address the needs at 241 locations across the state and will be done on an accelerated schedule to ensure completion this spring. Bids on the remaining projects will be sought in June.

This was a record-breaking winter for IDOT, which responded to 46 storms across the state, using 585,000 tons of salt to fight snow and ice conditions on state roadways. Many state highways were damaged from the extreme freeze-thaw action of soil beneath the highways that causes pavement surfaces to crack, buckle, and deteriorate into potholes.

Spring road repair work will include:

• Patching--pavement removal and replacement of small sections of the worst damaged highways.

• Intermittent resurfacing--overlaying the riding surface of short sections of highways.

• Resurfacing--overlaying longer sections of highways.

• Bridge deck overlays--resurfacing the riding surface on the bridge.

• Joint repairs--repair of the joints between concrete slabs of the highway.

• Cold milling--removing sections of the driving surface to smooth out bumps, or to prepare the highway for resurfacing.