Village of Itasca, IL:
2007 Street Program Construction Website
Background
The Village of Itasca is committed to keeping its residents and
businesses informed, especially when it comes to the Village’s annual
street construction program. The Village has often provided construction
announcements in the Village’s newsletter, sent out project notifications
via mail, and utilized door hangers, flyers and signs to notify residents
of construction progress and alerts.
The Village was looking for an additional method to keep residents up
to date on the Village’s 2007 street projects. After consulting with their
Village Engineer, Baxter & Woodman it was determined that creating
a construction website would be an effective method to provide readily
available construction updates to local residents and businesses.
Solution
A construction website (http://itascastreets.bwcsi.com) was developed
and hosted by Baxter & Woodman. A link to the 2007 street program
construction website was provided on the Village of Itasca’s website at
www.itasca.com. The website was set up to include information on the
Village’s two (2) street construction projects in 2007 including project
location maps, descriptions of work to be completed, and project
team members.
Blog
Itasca’s 2007 street program construction website also contains a blog
which was created and updated regularly by Baxter & Woodman’s Kerry
Megraw, the construction resident project representative on site during
construction. Through the blog, Kerry provided frequent updates on the
construction work in progress including construction schedules, critical
alerts such as road closures or water main shut-downs, and construction
photographs. The blog is also set up to allow residents to submit questions
or comments directly to construction field representatives.
Web Camera
Now that construction of the Village’s 2007 street program is underway,
Baxter & Woodman has installed a web camera that runs on solar power
and sends images directly to the construction internet site through wireless
phone lines. The web camera is located with limited tree cover and faces a
direction that will provide residents, businesses and government officials
with a current view of the construction in progress. To check out the
webcam for yourself, visit http://itascastreets.bwcsi.com and click on the
link titled Web Camera on the left-hand side of the page.
Results
The Village received NO complaints from residents during construction.
This is due, in part, to the excellent communication methods utilized to
keep residents informed thoughout the project.
