Bartlett committee agrees to move forward with road improvement project
The Bartlett public works committee agreed Tuesday to move forward with plans to issue $13.2 million in bonds that will be used primarily to fund a villagewide road improvement project.
Paul Kuester, director of public works, explained that currently the village is only resurfacing 2 percent of its 141 miles of roads per year. However, he said resurfacing at that rate has resulted in a very large work backlog.
“This is critical,” said village administrator Valerie Salmons. “It’s something that our residents are talking about. We’ve been planning to bring this to the board for some time.”
The last time the village used bonds for road work was in 2002 for the widening of West Bartlett Road.
For the project, the majority of the money from the bonds would be used to fix roads that are considered “very poor” or “poor” according to the data provided by a technology company that finished evaluating all of Bartlett’s streets last summer.
Pavement Condition Index ratings range from 0 to 100, with 0 being the worst condition. Kuester said while an acceptable PCI is 50, this project would concentrate on fixing roads at 40 or below, where the pavement must be milled and resurfaced.
About 6 miles of the village’s roads range between 0 to 20, or “very poor,” meaning that the only work ever done on them currently is emergency patching.
Some of those trouble spots include Munger Road from Army Trail Road to Forest Preserve Drive; Powis Road just south of Stearns Road; and all of Ashford Circle.
About 33 miles of the village’s roads fall in the “poor” level, between 21 and 40.
Kuester said the road conditions are a result of the increased number of freeze-thaw cycles that have occurred in recent years, along with the age of the roads.
The cost of remilling, patching and resurfacing those nearly 40 miles in roads from both categories amounts to nearly $12 million.
The remaining $1.2 million from the bonds would be used to fund the village’s portion of a flood mitigation plan for an area by Hearthwood Farms, south of North Avenue and east of Prospect Avenue.
The village’s financial adviser, John Peterson, told the committee that interest rates and the village’s low debt ratio are in their favor and that he recommends the village borrows money as quickly as possible.
Preliminary data shows that a $13.2 million bond issue would cost a resident with a $300,000 home approximately $50 more per year than based on the current market, but those numbers can change depending on a variety of factors.
The trustees came to an easy consensus that they want the village staff to continue working on the project.
“If we put this off we’ll pay for it later,” said trustee Dennis Nolan. “If we don’t do it, I think we’ll be in serious trouble down the road.”
The bonds are scheduled to be awarded on March 20. Kuester said if everything on the financial end stays on schedule he projects work beginning by August or September.