Ridge Avenue, City of Evanston

Winner of the 2008 APWA Project of the Year Award
Transportation Projects
($5 Million but less than $25 Million)

Ridge Avenue, a minor arterial route in Evanston, carries approximately 17,500 to 20,200 vehicles daily. The proposed action was the improvement of Ridge Avenue from Howard Street to Lyons Street (approximately 2.1 miles). Much of the north half of the project corridor passes through the Evanston Ridge Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A portion of the south end of the project corridor passes through the Oakton Historic District, which is locally-designated. The existing roadway width was 36 feet, face-to-face of curb, with no widened areas for auxiliary turn lanes. With two lanes of through traffic in each direction, this meant that each travel lane was a narrow 9 feet in width. The standard lane width is 12 feet. The typical minimum allowable lane width is 10 feet. Due to the historical significance of this route, as well as the presence of historic stone retaining walls and large mature trees within a few feet of the back of curb in some locations, in order for this rehabilitation project to be acceptable to the local residents and Historic Commission, no roadway widening would be permitted.

The maintenance and jurisdiction of this segment of Ridge Avenue was transferred from the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to the City of Evanston. The improvement was to be constructed using Federal High Priority Project (HPP) funding. Therefore, Federal-Aid procedures were followed throughout the duration of the project. Reviewing agencies were the City of Evanston, IDOT, and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

Improvement goals included various items along this deteriorating historic roadway corridor:

• Rehabilitate existing pavement structure
• Improve pedestrian safety
• Install relief storm sewer to improve the drainage conditions & separate sanitary flows
• Improve traffic safety
• Improve traffic operation

In accordance with Federal-Aid procedures, the project was completed in three stages: preliminary engineering, design engineering, and construction. Improvements included roadway resurfacing, roadway base repairs as necessary, the replacement of concrete curb and gutter, the replacement of carriage walks where present, and the installation of sidewalk ramps at intersections as necessary, and the installation of a relief sewer. The improvements were needed primarily to rehabilitate deteriorating pavement and also to improve traffic and pedestrian operation and safety. No property acquisition or temporary construction easements were required as part of the improvement. It was also imperative that no trees were removed as part of this improvement.

Navigation of the Federal Aid process (FHWA/IDOT) was a key component to the successful implementation of the project. The Ridge Avenue project included extremely aggressive requirements for completion within a fixed time period. Civiltech Engineering completed all phases of the project for the City of Evanston and was successful in having implemented the project within a record time frame.

The completion of a crash analysis along the route was a critical piece of the Preliminary Engineering phase. Three years’ worth of crash data was collected and analyzed, which showed that five intersections toward the north end of the improvement were considered to be High Accident Locations (HAL’s) based on historical statistics. To reduce the number of crashes, countermeasures were proposed in the Preliminary Engineering phase and implemented in the Construction phase.

The completion of this project in two years, from the start of the planning stage through the end of construction, would not have been possible without the thorough public involvement plan that was implemented. Meetings were held with stakeholders, which included representatives from adjacent schools, churches, hospitals, and community organizations, as well as police and fire officials and local City Aldermen. Civiltech’s planners, designers, and construction engineers met with residents and businesses to take people through the entire project phase by phase.

During construction, daily notices were printed and distributed to Evanston residents and businesses who may be affected by the day’s work. The City of Evanston’s website was also updated with current project status. This method of information distribution was extremely effective, keeping everyone well informed and providing a safer and more open work zone.