ALTON - Alton Public Works Director Bob Barnhardt said as many as 16 streets are on the city's list for improvements this year.
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On Wednesday, the city's public works department was working on milling and paving Seminary Street - a street Barnhardt said was needing lots of work with its bad combination of high traffic and too many potholes. The brick streets were covered with three inches of asphalt to provide a better driving surface. Barnhardt said Seminary is just a start for a larger project in conjunction with Illinois American Water.
"They are doing a lot of work with us as part of their capital investment programs," Barnhardt said of Illinois American Water. "They have some aging water mains they are working to replace, and it fits well with streets we're trying to pave. We work together to cover the costs, and it all works out. We don't want to pave the streets and make them nice just for them to have to come and replace the main and repave the streets again. That's a lot of extra work we can avoid by working together."
Seminary Street was the first, but Barnhardt said as many as 16 streets are on his list for future paving within a year. He said he cannot promise they will be done within that time frame, adding infrastructure emergencies and weather are always unpredictable future variables but said working with Illinois American Water has been great for the city and has made it an easier task to complete.
Steven Spencer also contributed to this story.
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