NIU launches immediate road improvement program NIU launches immediate road improvement program by Joe King Responding to major road deterioration, Northern Illinois University has begun taking immediate steps to improve crumbling campus roadways. Some streets on campus have deteriorated so badly that they pose safety concerns, and we are taking immediate steps to improve the situation. Williams unveiled a three-phase roadway improvement program at the Finance, Facilities and Operations Committee meeting on March 7. Phase I, emergency patching, began March 5 with university grounds crews working to prepare the most damaged areas for patching by a private contractor during the March 12-18 spring break. Those repairs should keep roads serviceable through the spring and into summer when the university plans to embark upon Phase II of the program, temporary resurfacing of most, if not all, of the West Campus bus loop and the University Circle.
Plans are to level the roads, put down a layer of rock and then cover that with a layer of asphalt.
The goal is to undertake that project in fiscal year 2003, but the timing of the work would be entirely contingent upon getting the project included in the list of state-funded capital projects, Williams explained. That project would be a complete re-build of the roads in question, including a new base and concrete roadways instead of asphalt. The existing roads were built in the 1960s and are well beyond their useful life. They were never intended for the heavy bus traffic that they carry each day. That traffic, combined with the effects of age, freezing, thawing and road salt have left the roads in a sorry state.