City of Bloomington Utilities says it expects to repave and fully reopen two blocks of Fourth Street by Labor Day weekend, in time for the annual 4th Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts.
CBU began work at the start of August to upgrade a portion of Bloomington’s downtown storm sewers, some of which were constructed in 1900. CBU Communications Manager Holly McLauchlin said that plans for the upgrade existed since the ‘90s, but heavy flooding in 2021 prompted the city to accelerate its vision.
“This segment that we’re doing now is just part of the whole big project for updating the infrastructure downtown to eliminate that massive amount of flooding we’ve seen, especially on Kirkwood,” McLauchlin said.
The current work is part of the City of Bloomington’s Hidden River Pathway project, which aims to update an underground culvert connecting the Campus River in Dunn Meadow with Clear Creek, where it emerges south of First Street.
The Hidden River Pathway consists of only one section of Bloomington’s entire storm drain system. McLauchlin said the next phase of the project will take place in 2023 or 2024 under Indiana Ave. near the Sample Gates.
