Better roads for Batavia could cost $1 million more a year

If Batavia wants to improve the average condition of its streets, the city should be spending nearly double its current amount on maintenance and resurfacing, city engineer Rahat Bari said.

Assuming pavement has about a 20-year life span and committing to a 20-year resurfacing cycle, the city should be spending $2.65 million each year, according to Bari's report. And of that more than $2 million, $650,000 would be spent to catch up on what already should have been done, Bari said.

Currently, the city spends about $1.1 million per year, he said.

The city's last pavement condition study was done in 2011. Extrapolating those results to 2015, Bari estimated the average condition of most Batavia streets at 5.6 out of 10 points, where 10 is excellent condition - 5.6 puts the streets in below-average condition. Some minor collector streets - such as Prairie Street and Van Nortwick Avenue - have an average rating of 3.9, putting them in the category where they should be reconstructed and not just resurfaced.

Depending on how the extra money was used, the pavement condition index could be raised to a score of 6.

Bari also pointed out that as the town grew between 1990 to 2015, the number of streets the city has just about doubled. Much of that growth came from 1990 to 1995, and those roads are coming due for resurfacing as are existing streets resurfaced back then.

"This is a program that should be adopted by the city of Batavia. How we are going to fund it, I don't know." Alderman Dave Brown said.

Mayor Jeff Schielke reiterated the council should not expect any money from the federal or state governments, given the state budget impasse. He sits on the northeastern Illinois regional transportation planning committee, the Metropolitan Policy Organization.

"The conventional wisdom right now is the federal government is sending the money in right now (for the Surface Transportation Program) and the state is not sending it through (to municipalities)," Schielke said.

STP money typically is used for resurfacing of arterial streets, such as Main and Wilson.

Seventy-five percent of Batavia's streets are local, and about 6 percent are arterials. The rest are major and minor collectors. The city is responsible for 117 centerline miles of streets - 1,998,000 square yards of pavement.