by CLIFF AND NANCY HILL
Just in time for Start of Summer festivities and the ensuing summer long celebration of the City’s 75th anniversary Rockford’s main drag, Main Street, received a much needed pavement renovation. With attendant curb and sidewalk restoration, where needed, Main Street was resurfaced from 10 Mile Rd. (Division St.) on the south, to just north of Courtland St. (Rocky’s). Working closely with the projects prime contractor, City Manager Michael Young believed the project moved smoothly and there was little disruption to the downtown business district.
Out with the old, in with the new. At the intersection of Main and Bridge Streets, this self-propelled behemoth of a machine is removing the old cracked and crumbling surface of downtown Rockford’s Main Street. Photo by CLIFF HILL
Primarily funded by Federal stimulus money, all work was completed in a timely fashion. If you’ve not been downtown in the past three weeks to notice, curb and sidewalk work (where needed) has been underway and on Friday, May21, the surface of the entire stretch of road was milled (removed) to a depth of 1-½ inches. Crack sealing of the subsurface ensued, which was followed by a tack coat sealant overlaid by a state-of-the-art polypropylene fabric known as Petromat. A new asphalt overlay, to grade, completed the roadway surface reconstruction.
The key ingredient here, if you will, is the Petromat System. It becomes an integral part of the roadway forming a barrier to water infiltration and absorbing stresses to reduce fatigue cracking of the new asphalt surface layer. Petromat Systems have an outstanding record of improving pavement performance while at the same time reducing maintenance and roadway life-cycle costs.
The corners of each intersection including 10 Mile Road, Maple Street, Bridge Street, and Courtland Street have newly poured concrete handicap accessible curb cuts to meet Federally mandated requirements. Sections of adjacent red brick pavers were repaired and rebuilt as needed. Pavement and parking stall striping completed the picture.
Come downtown for a stroll, have a great meal, do some shopping and check it out. It looks great.
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