Work on Sterling’s $6M Second Street construction project rolls out next week

STERLING — Sterling’s Second Street road construction project, which will rebuild 10 blocks along Second Street from First Avenue to Route 2, is expected to start next week.

Sterling city officials held an open house Tuesday, April 8, to answer residents’ questions about the project that will be completed by Gensini Excavating of Princeton at a price tag of $6.2 million.

“The whole road will be cored out,” Gensini estimator Mike Garland said. “They’re going to get new curbs and sidewalks on both sides. The driveways will be redone in those areas, and then, right away, a new storm sewer system, and then a new asphalt road.”

Engineer Kyle Lorenz of Willet Hofmann & Associates said the work will be completed in five phases and is expected to be finished by June 2026.

“The first phase will be from Ninth Avenue to Broadway [Avenue], the end of it by the Dillon Home, and then from Ninth to Sixth Avenue, Sixth to Third [Avenue], and Third to Illinois 40,” Lorenz said. “The fifth stage will probably be the pedestrian bridge.”

The 160-foot pedestrian bridge will cross over Illinois Route 40 near the north side of the train tracks, extending behind the Plainwell Brass building and leading to a new multi-use bikeway path on East Second Street from First Avenue to Broadway Avenue.

The Sterling City Council approved a resolution in October authorizing Mayor Diana Merdian to enter into an agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation and allocate $655,203 in local matching funds for the bikeway path’s construction as part of the project.

City Manager Scott Schumard has said the majority of the bikeway path will be funded with IDOT’s Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program grants. The ITEP grant will reimburse the city for 80% of the bikeway path construction, and the city will be responsible for the remaining 20%.

Several Sterling residents living on Second Street, including Pam and Joe Machan, expressed concerns over the potential impact of the construction.

“One of our big concerns is being trapped in our driveways,” Pam said. “Because when American Water did that street a couple of years ago, there was a four-hour period where we weren’t told in advance that we could or could not leave, and that’s what we want to avoid.”

Garland assured the Machans they would be notified 24 hours in advance of any driveway work that might affect them.

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A rendering of Sterling's Second Street road construction project is shown during an open house on April 8, 2025. (Brandon Clark)

“If we’re doing driveway replacements and we have to redo the concrete, yeah, we have to cut off access, but we’ll let you know ahead of time so you can get your cars out of there, and park on a side street, and then you can go back,” Garland said. “Other than that, you’re going to have access to your house at all times.”

Garland said construction will generally occur from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Lorenz said crews will be out Tuesday, April 15, performing water worksite preparation.

“They’re going to move some of the domestic vault belts,” Lorenz said. “They’re going to move some of them so that they’re out of the way, and then they’re also going to, where we have conflicts with storm sewer, they’re going to be lowering them.”

The Second Street project was originally planned for last year, but approval delays affected the city’s ability to schedule as much roadwork as it could have. Each year, the city sends a list of streets that need to be resurfaced and rebuilt to their engineers to prepare bids for the first half of the year.

Schumard said that by the time the city learned the Second Street project would likely be delayed until 2025, allowing them to add more roads to their list of projects, contractors responding to those bids already were booked and required the city to extend the project deadlines if the city wanted a lower price.

Although the city is responsible for 100% of the Second Street roadwork costs, Schumard said the majority of that project’s cost already is in place by using a combination of motor fuel tax funds, the city’s allotment of federal Surface Transportation Program funds and Sterling’s local option sales tax.