Street improvement projects in Brookfield will begin in a matter of weeks after village trustees voted to award a $1.55 million construction contract for the work at their board meeting March 24.
Village Engineer Derek Treichel said that work on seven blocks of village streets should begin “mid-April” and is scheduled to wrap up any time from mid-August to early September.
Letters detailing the effort will be sent to residents of the blocks where construction is to occur. Among the streets affected will be Oak Avenue and Vernon Avenue from Garfield Avenue to 31st Street; Garfield Avenue from Maple Avenue to Prairie Avenue; Forest Avenue from Brookfield Avenue to Lincoln Avenue; and Grove Avenue from Shields Avenue to Rochester Avenue.
Bethany Vogelsberg/Staff
The work is being funded by bonds sold in 2006 for street and water/sewer system repairs.
Access to the streets under construction will be limited at times, especially on Oak, Vernon and Garfield avenues, which will undergo total reconstruction.
On those streets, the concrete base will be removed and replaced with a stone base that will be topped with asphalt. Treichel said that there will be “one to two week” periods where parking will be prohibited on those streets. He said the streets would not be closed off to local traffic completely, adding that traffic would be allowed on the stone base prior to the asphalt being laid.
On Garfield Avenue, the weeks where parking is prohibited may be staggered depending on what part of the street is being worked on.
Improvements on Forest Avenue will be much more modest in scope. The asphalt pavement will be simply be milled off and then re-laid. However, Forest Avenue will also be widened meaning that new curbs and gutters will also be installed the entire length of the improved area.
The improvement on Grove Avenue is principally a sewer replacement effort. Since Grove Avenue is a concrete street, the entire trench area will be patched with concrete, a fix that should make the street viable for many years, Treichel said.
In addition to the roadwork funded by bond proceeds, improvements will also be made this summer to Washington Avenue from Prairie Avenue to Golf Road. Money for that project is coming principally from a federal grant.
A simple resurfacing project, work on Washington Avenue should begin in mid- to late-June, Treichel said. The project is expected to take two months.
“The goal is to have it completed prior to the time school resumes,” Treichel said.