roads

City leaders announced that the East Main Street Underpass Project will now have a projected start date of January 2016.

It was originally scheduled to begin in August of this year.

A non-binding referendum on the April ballot will ask voters whether to increase the city’s utility tax. The extra revenue would go toward road repairs and help replace diminishing state funding.

County board members are taking it to the streets as they work to convince voters to approve a quarter-cent increase in the sales tax. The money generated would pay for road repairs.  The referendum will appear on the April 7 ballot.

The Illinois legislature’s spring session is supposed to end this week, roads and bridges are deteriorating, and state and federal programs to fund construction are expiring, so an unusual coalition of business and labor proposed a plan to address the situation.

However, it’s unclear where it stands in Springfield.

Wrapping up are Illinois Jobs Now – which funds maintenance and construction of roads, highways and public transit, set to end July 1 – and the federal Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), ending Sept. 30 (if its funds don’t run out sooner).

The McDonough County Highway Department is posting road weight limits until April 14th. The department's website calendar will show what days the limits are in effect. On those days, haulers will need permits to haul legal limits that are over the load limits.

County Engineer Tom Hickman said the limits are one way to reduce damage to the roads.

He said, “The freeze-thaw cycle is why I do this. Because when the road base freezes and then thaws out, it gets soft and it comes apart if you put too much weight on it.”