Despite cutbacks in the city’s proposed budget, Charleston officials are planning new street construction and maintenance work beginning May 1.

That is because projects like resurfacing streets and sealing cracks save the city money in the long term, said Curt Buescher, public works director.

“The idea of performing maintenance on our existing streets . does save money,” Buescher said. “That’s, overall, something we have not done a good enough job at historically.”

Buescher said the city plans to resurface Polk Avenue between Sixth and Seventh streets, adding new pavement, curbing and retaining walls.

Later this summer, the city will also repave a stretch of Fourth Street between Madison Avenue and Olive Street, he said.

Buescher said the city also plans to repair broken sidewalks around the city.

“We’ve got a lot of sidewalk work at various locations,” he said.

Officials plan to seal many of the cracks on city streets, he said, adding that simply patching over these cracks only puts off new cracks for a few years.

“We’re routing out the old cracks and sealing them,” Buescher said. “The general principle behind that is water gets into the cracks . and through the freeze-thaw cycle, those cracks get bigger.”

The city is also receiving $600,000 of federal economic stimulus money through the Illinois Department of Transportation to fund additional street repairs.

With those funds, Buescher said, the city plans to rebuild parts of West Polk Avenue and rebuild intersections along Lincoln Avenue, including University Avenue, Division Street and Fourth Street.

Joe Astrouski can be reached at 581-7942 or at jmastrouski@eiu.edu.