Continued sidewalk repairs approved by Wheaton city council

The Wheaton City Council agreed Monday to budget about $50,000 more toward the city's sidewalk replacement program for the 2014-15 fiscal year.

Now in its third year, the program will focus on the repair of highly defective sidewalk squares that remain in the northeast quadrant of the city, and possibly portions of the city's northwest quadrant. Work already has been completed in the southeast quadrant.

Six bids were submitted for the upcoming work, ranging from the $300,000 that will be put in the budget for the winning company, Strada Construction, to about $1.1 million.

City officials said that even though Strada's bid was significantly less than the average bid, the company has done work for the city before and is qualified to do the job. About 54,000 square feet of sidewalks are expected to be completed by Strada.

According to city officials, there are about 268 miles of sidewalk in the city, compared to 165 miles of streets. At the start of the program, the city's sidewalks were valued at about $35 million, which is about the same value as city hall, the police station and the library buildings combined.