The City of Braidwood worked through what projects would be part of its $6 million, five-year capital improvement plan during its Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday.

City Engineer Sean Kelly said the idea is to lay out all the projects on the horizon that need to be done, and develop how the projects will be funded, and what needs to be slotted where.

“We first looked at all the projects, put all the projects together, developed costs for those, and worked with staff on when to prioritize to see what needed to be done,” Kelly said.

The first on the list was the Braidwood Town Center project, which the City of Braidwood has received a $600,000 Open Space Land Acquisition and Development grant for.

Improvements include walking trails, a band shelter, splash pads and pavilions, and there are plans for a second phase that adds pickleball courts.

Kelly said the city also looked at street projects, water infrastructure, sanitary projects, and storm projects.

“Streets are challenging,” Kelly said. “We need to research, and we need to resurface. We looked at the original plan from 2024 for that. We did a pavement analysis looking at the worst streets and started ranking those.”

He said they’re trying to look at street projects that don’t overlap with water projects that will tear up the street.

Kelly said there are currently two major projects planned for, first for Illinois Route 113 and another for EZ Street on the city’s far north side. Money for those projects have already been allocated, but the cost is higher than the city can currently afford.

Braidwood has received about $400,000 from the state of Illinois to offset the cost for the EZ street project, and the total cost will be around $1 million.

There are also many water issues that need solved, like mains that need upsized, to go along with road resurfacing.