More Top Picks Buying Advice
player ready...Those fresh coats of paint on manhole covers in New Lenox aren’t just spring cleaning.
Paintbrush-wielding public works employees have fanned out through the village marking “upwards of 3,000 structures,” such as manhole covers, water lines and fire hydrants, in preparation for an aerial mapping project, Village Administrator Russ Loebe said Friday.
When photographically equipped planes fly over Will County next week, the freshly painted infrastructure will be a visual cue for New Lenox officials when they examine their portion of the county’s aerial map.
The ability to pinpoint exact infrastructure locations can be especially helpful when the town is covered with winter snowfalls, Loebe said.
The cooperative agreement with Will County for the aerial mapping is part of a push to get an accurate map of the growing village, Loebe said.
Also in the works is a computerized mapping project, which will provide an accurate, block-by-block picture of the village.
The computerized mapping to be done by the Joliet-based surveying firm of Ruettiger, Tonelli and Associates Inc., will be at the same level of accuracy as the homeowner’s plat of survey that delineates the exact dimensions of the property, Loebe said.
Maps currently available are “about as accurate as street maps,” especially in the older sections of town, Loebe said.
Mapping out townships, section lines, subdivisions, individual lots, streets and rights-of-way, wetlands and railroad tracks will make planning and design less complicated in the future because separate plats of survey won’t have to be commissioned for every project, he said.
The database file for the map will include all available property information, including topology, he said.
The time to update is now while the growing village is still relatively small, Loebe said.