Colden Street Project wrapping up for year, set to continue in 2023

POLO — Advantageous weather allowed construction crews to get an additional block’s worth of work done this week in Polo’s $3.3 million storm sewer improvement project.

Crews from the Colden Street Project’s main contractor — Martin & Co., of Oregon — already worked on South Maple Avenue, West Buffalo Street and South Congress Avenue this year, Polo Public Works Director Kendall Kyker said. More work will take place in 2023, he said.

They had been “shutting down” last week, but because of good weather, decided to take care of the underground work on West Colden Street between South Congress and Division avenues, Kyker said.

“What they’re going to do is one more block this year, and then they’ll be done,” he said. “Then I think they should be done and out of here about the end of that week.”

The Colden Street Project encompasses about 10.5 blocks, spanning both the downtown business district and residential neighborhoods. It is meant to help alleviate water buildup on Illinois Route 26 — named Division Avenue in Polo city limits — during torrential rain events.

Work set to take place in 2023 includes about 2.5 blocks of underground work and blacktopping. Helm Civil, of Freeport, is doing the blacktop.

There will be three blocks that will be gravel this winter — South Congress Avenue between West Mason and West Buffalo streets and West Colden Street between South Congress and Division avenues, Kyker said. There also won’t be sidewalks along those streets, he said.

“We will have to do special cleanings,” he said.

City crews will be using a box scraper to blow snow, which then will be hauled away because it will have gravel in it, Kyker said.

“If I just plow it and throw it in everybody’s yard, we’re not going to have a lot of happy campers, and then I’ve got a lot more work to do, which costs the tax payers money which we don’t want to do,” he said. “Then the rest of the town, when we haul snow, we take that out and dump it in a cornfield and it just melts.”