Concrete Repair in Mondovi, Wisconsin.

Mondovi added a driveway rule in August 2020 that decides the material for anyone rebuilding an entrance here: a driveway connecting to a city road has to be paved in concrete within the city right of way, with grades and alignment set by the City Engineer before construction. On the walk itself the Common Council determines the need for and the location of every repair or replacement, and the whole cost of that work is assessed against the abutting property under Chapter 20 of the code. An owner doing the work holds a permit from the City Clerk and files a sketch showing location and dimensions with a pledge to conform to the city specifications, which the Clerk hands out with the permit. Snow comes off within 24 hours of the last measurable snowfall, and the code names pedestrian ramps specifically, which have to be cleared to their full width. Two state highway projects will put concrete through town, WIS 37 down to US 10 in 2027 with sidewalk, curb and gutter replaced, and US 10 itself in 2030 and 2031 in eight inches of concrete with new sidewalk and rebuilt curb ramps.

Four things take concrete apart here, and each one goes after a different part of a property. A sidewalk panel sits on saturated ground or over a root. The water under it freezes, expands and lifts the panel. In spring the ground thaws and settles, and the panel does not go all the way back down with it, so what was flush in October is a lip in April. Then a plow blade catches that lip every storm for five months and breaks the leading edge off it. A curb takes the plow head on. The blade rides up the gutter, catches the curb face and takes the nose off in chunks. Salted slush sits in the gutter longer than anywhere else on the lot, because the gutter is where everything on the lot drains to, so the gutter is where the surface scales first. De-icer does the same thing to flat concrete. Chloride pulls water into the surface and runs more freeze and thaw cycles through it in a season than the weather would on its own. The mortar skin comes off in flakes and the aggregate stands proud. The approach at the street is a joint between two slabs that belong to different people. The street sits on a road section and a deep base; the drive sits on whatever was there. Frost gets under the shallower one first, the apron cracks along the gutter line, and that crack takes water into the base under both of them.