Street Division

The Department of Public Works Street Division is responsible for the maintenance of streets, right-of-ways, municipal buildings, urban forestry and landscape sites, traffic control signs, street lighting, storm sewer and detention systems.  During the winter season the Street Division conducts snow and ice control operations on the Village’s 243 lane miles of roads including 328 cul-de-sacs and dead end streets.

  1. Adopt-A-Roadway Program

    2. The Village of Gurnee Adopt-A-Roadway program allows community groups an opportunity to support anti-litter efforts by adopting a section of Village roadway for a two year period for the purpose of trash collection. Roadway sections are between ½ and 2 miles in length and groups are required to conduct litter collection at least 2 times annually.
      
    During litter collections, groups must provide one adult supervisor, 21 years of age or older, for every five youths under the age of 18 and no one under the age of 10 may participate in litter collections due to safety concerns. Litter collections can only be conducted between one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset, in fair weather during non-rush hour traffic times.
     
    Roadways in the Adopt-A-Roadway Program are:
     
    Almond Road (Washington to Dada)
    Almond Road (Dada to Grand)
    Cedar Avenue
    Cemetery Road (Tri-State Parkway to Washington)
    Dada Drive (Hunt Club to Almond)
    Dada Drive (Almond to Knowles)
    Depot Road
    Fuller Road (North of Grand)
    Knowles Road
    Leonard Drive (Gages Lake to Crossland)
    Morrison Drive
    Northwestern Avenue
    Old Grand Avenue
    St. Paul Avenue
    Tri-State Parkway
     
    To participate in the Adopt-A-Roadway program, please download the application. To find out which Village roadways are available, please contact us at 847-599-6800.
     
    For those parties interested in adopting a state or county highway, please contact the Illinois Department of Transportation at 217-782-6953, or the Lake County Division of Transportation at 847-377-7400.

  2. Roadway Maintenance
    3. Public Works performs emergency asphalt and concrete repairs to Village roadways when small or isolated pavement failures occur. The freeze-thaw cycles in northern Illinois can cause potholes, cracking and heaving that if addressed early can prolong the service life of the pavement. Large failures will be referred to the Engineering Division for inclusion in their MFT pavement patching program.
  3. Sidewalk / Curb Maintenance

    4. Public Works conducts repair and replacement of the Village’s sidewalks and curb sections that are designated as unsafe or hazardous situations. Large or numerous cracks, settlements, heaved or displaced sections, and areas that hold water for more than 48 hours after a rainfall are typical conditions that may trigger a repair.

    Learn more about Public Sidewalk Ponding.

    Learn more about Public Sidewalk Settlement Trip Hazards.

  4. Storm Sewer Maintenance

    5. Routine maintenance and repairs are necessary to ensure the conveyance of storm water through the Village’s network of ditches, storm sewers, detention basins and tributaries. Some of the most common maintenance conducted by Public Works are repairs to deteriorating catch basins, pipes that have separated due to settlement, and jet rodding of storm pipes that have been clogged by roots or other debris. Completing this work reduces the likelihood of flooding, sinkholes and future deterioration of the storm sewer system.

    The Village’s network of underground storm sewer consists of concrete structures, catch basins, and piping. Catch basins are located under steel grates where the water is channeled to them by means of curbing, ditch lines, or fields, and also "trap" some of the litter, dirt and large debris that get washed into the system.  Piping in our community ranges in size from 4” to 60” depending on the amount of water flow and volume that will be traveling through it. These pipes are made of different materials such as concrete (RCP), plastic (PVC), or steel (CMP) which carry the storm water runoff and melting snow to rivers, streams, retention ponds, and detention basins.

  5. Street Lights

    6. The Village has a network of more than 2,100 streetlights throughout the community to keep residential neighborhoods and businesses safe and illuminated.  The Public Works Department is responsible for the maintenance of 1,675 of these streetlights and the balance are owned and maintained by Commonwealth Edison (Com Ed). If you know of a streetlight outage, please contact us at 847-599-6800 or click here so that we can schedule the repair or notify Com Ed. We will attempt to respond to outages within 72 hours of the initial call. Depending on the reason for the outage, some lights may require more extensive work and a longer time for repairs.

     
  6. Street Signs

    7. The purpose of traffic control signs or devices is to promote roadway safety and efficiency by providing orderly movement of all road users on any street and highway throughout the United States. The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) contains the basic principles that govern the design and use of traffic controls signs or devices for all streets and highways open to public travel regardless of the type, class, or the public agency jurisdiction. The MUTCD specifies the design, placement, operation, maintenance, and uniformity of all traffic control signs or devices
     
    Gurnee Public Works is responsible for the fabrication, installation, care and maintenance of close to 3,800 traffic control signs throughout the Village. The Lights and Signs crew is currently working to upgrade all of the Villages traffic control signs to meet the new reflectivity and size standards laid out in the MUTCD.