BRONZEVILLE — Mayor Rahm Emanuel and city and state officials Thursday announced $12.5 million in new state funding for street resurfacing as crews put the finishing touches on new blacktop on Martin Luther King Drive.
“There is no way someone taking their kids to school or going to church is going to lose a tire,” Emanuel said during a news conference at 44th Street and King Drive.
Repaving the stretch of King Drive from 37th Street to 51st Street cost about $4 million, the longest single stretch of resurfacing the city has completed this year.
“We have not had the opportunity for many years to get this work done,” Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) said. “King Drive is the major street that connects our community to jobs, families and churches.”
Many streets in Bronzeville took a beating after one of the snowiest winters in years. By May, more people had complained to the city that potholes damaged their cars than in the last four years combined.
The city will patch, repair or resurface 355 miles of roads this year, according to Rebekah Scheinfeld, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation.
The state funding will provide resources to resurface nine miles of arterial streets, patch 150 blocks and resurface or patch 1½ miles of bike lanes.
Dowell said work will start in August repairing one of the roughest patches of roadway on the mid-South Side, a stretch of Garfield Boulevard from King Drive to the Dan Ryan Expressway.
