“This section of road is approximately 584 feet long and is going to cost around $350,000 to reconstruct.”
That works out to about $600 a foot, every 30 years or so, for every street in town. Galesburg plans to spend $3.2 million a year on capital work. Even at a quarter of the estimate, road upkeep alone needs $4.7 million. Postwar sprawl built more pavement than the tax base can ever maintain, and the bill is coming due as potholes.