Concrete Or Asphalt For Hinsdale Streets?

HINSDALE, IL — Next year, Hinsdale is leaning toward replacing the concrete on Eighth Street with asphalt. A year later, it plans to go from asphalt to concrete on Garfield Street.

So what gives?

About a decade ago, the village redid Garfield with asphalt, but that didn't work out so well, Village President Tom Cauley said at this week's virtual Village Board meeting.

"You know you have been village president for too long when you'll be redoing a street that you redid when you started," Cauley said. "Clearly, (Garfield) should be in concrete because there is a lot of heavy truck traffic. Prior to a couple of years ago, every street we redid was in asphalt, then we started thinking that if a street has a lot of truck traffic, we deviate from that."

As for Eighth Street from Garfield to County Line Road, Cauley said the street does not have nearly enough truck traffic to warrant concrete. The construction traffic that's been on the street, he said, is temporary.

Trustee Neale Byrnes reported that Garfield sees daily traffic of 6,700 vehicles a day, compared with 1,100 on Eighth.

Trustee Gerald Hughes, however, said that if the village chose concrete for Eighth, it could be seen as a bad decision. He noted the village estimates that concrete lasts 75 years, compared with 15 for asphalt, and concrete costs 1½ to 2 times more.

"I don't need a calculator to know what the better long-term decision is," Hughes said.

Hughes also argued that Eighth is a major street in southeast Hinsdale.

"It's the only street in southeast Hinsdale between Chicago (Avenue) and 55th Street that seems to be designed for through traffic. It's the only street in concrete," Hughes said. "It's the only street without a stop sign between County Line and Garfield, except Sixth. For obvious reasons, Sixth shouldn't be bearing the brunt of traffic."

The trustee said he wanted to see hard numbers before making a decision on Eighth. At a meeting two weeks ago, which Hughes did not attend, Trustee Laurel Haarlow also questioned converting Eighth to asphalt. Cauley and other officials agreed to get the numbers for both asphalt and concrete.

Cauley again said heavy truck traffic was the factor that should favor concrete and that Eighth doesn't have that type of traffic.

"I don't think it's the smart thing to do it in concrete," he said.

A decision is expected to be made at a later meeting.