HIGHWAY CONTRACTOR: Chicago is My Kind of Town
HighwayContractor
One of Chicago DOT’s in-house crews
places a high-recycle-content surface
lift that includes rubber-modified liquid
asphalt cement.
by Kirk Landers
How
Chicago DOT
Deals with the
New Budget Realities
The Mission:
Manage more
than 6,000
miles of roads
and alleys
with less
money and
be greener
about it.
The solution:
Innovate and
change.
T
he Great Recession has wreaked
havoc in road management programs all over America, but it has
also encouraged road professionals to reevaluate traditional practices and replace
some of them with more innovative, costeffective solutions.
Road departments for small- and mediumsized cities and counties have been on the
leading edge of this trend, their size and
closeness to the citizenry making possible
quicker, nimble reactions to changing economic tides.
But large and very large departments are
changing, too, and the Chicago Department
of Transportation is an excellent case in
point.
In a city with a reputation for machine
politics, change is in the air and it’s being
felt in the Chicago DOT. The impetus for
change comes from the city’s new mayor,
former Obama Administration Chief of Staff
Rahm Emanuel, as well as the rigors of the
recession.
The city’s department of transportation
manages more than 4,000 centerline miles
of streets, plus 2,100 miles of alleys and
more than 7,400 miles of sidewalks.
“Our directive is to stretch our budget
and be environmentally friendly,” Chicago
DOT Commissioner Gabe Klein told Better
Roads at the site of a demonstration project last fall. “We’re not afraid to try new
things.”
And indeed, the department is trying
new things.
Investigating techno-solutions
Chicago DOT is looking for new cost efficiencies in the field and in the administration of contracts, says Quality Assurance
Manager Cindy Williams, a department
spokeswoman on pavement issues. She
notes that the department wants to make a
substantial upgrade in its pavement management system — without the financial pain
of investing in a new, customized system.
“We’re reaching out to the Cook County
Highway Department to see if we can
adapt their systems,” says Williams. “We
need a better system for asset management, one that lets us better track pavement age and condition, and helps us
identify maintenance windows.”
Better Roads April 2012 9