The useful life of a worn but sound street pavement can be economically extended by milling and resurfacing. Construction is done largely during the summer, a season which is frequently shortened to avoid student and summer event traffic. Routine street maintenance consists of sweeping, plowing, striping, catch basin cleaning and minor pavement and curb repairs. Each spring and fall every street in the city is thoroughly cleaned using the two street sweepers, as well as loaders and other heavy equipment. During the summer, the downtown business district and Collegetown are swept every night, while neighborhood streets are swept monthly.
Snow removal is done with a fleet of five plows, with two graders added during heavy storms.
The city has designated snow emergency routes which are plowed first and kept open for the duration of a storm to provide emergency access and travel through the main thoroughfares in the city. Side streets are cleared when the main routes have been secured, with dead end streets being cleared last. A separate city crew plows parking lots and shovels sidewalks in parks and around city owned properties, as well as on the Commons. The accumulated total length of painted pavement markings including edge lines, centerline, crosswalks, stop bars, etc is approximately 62 miles. Repainting is completed on an annual basis.