Preparations begin for Libertyville road work blitz
The challenging task of “shaving and paving” nearly six miles of Libertyville streets won’t begin until next year but steps allowing legions of construction crews to get a quick start are well under way.
Three contracts totaling more than $657,000, approved this past week by the village board, represent a portion of the advance work needed for what will be an intense five years of road work throughout the village.
“I want it moving very quickly,” said Mayor Terry Weppler, who championed the road work plan.
Public Works Director John Heinz said the pieces will be in place for road crews to swarm quickly.
“Our desire and our schedule is to bid out the underground work in January of next year and the road work in February of next year and depending on the weather, contractors can start as soon as feasible,” Public Works Director John Heinz said.
Voters in March convincingly agreed to pay more in property taxes to raise $20 million to fix about 30 miles — or about one third — of the streets in the village. The nearly $4.6 million to be spent in 2013 will be more that quadruple what is spent on road work in a typical year.
With that, the volume of engineering and design work would overwhelm the village’s small staff, so local leaders decided to hire consultants to prepare documents needed for the bidding and construction.
“We really have no choice,” Heinz said.
As planned, about $3.6 million will be spent on milling and resurfacing portions of 38 streets. Another $850,000 will fund rebuilding streets, and about $100,000 will be spent to rebuild alleys.
Heinz estimated about $1.4 million in water mains have to be replaced before pavement is installed. Sewer improvements also will take place, he added.
Jorgensen & Associates Inc., of Lake Villa was hired to do a comprehensive topographic survey for the corridor where water mains will be replaced at a cost not to exceed about $39,547.
Gewalt-Hamilton Associates Inc., of Vernon Hills will prepare construction plans for those replacements and oversee the installation of 6,170 lineal feet of water main at a cost not to exceed $144,700.
“It’s really to prevent rebuilding a road and having to tear it up in five or seven years,” said Trustee Rich Moras.
Christopher B. Burke Engineering Ltd., of Rosemont, will design and oversee the shave and pave portion of the 2013 work at a cost not to exceed $473,207.
While preparations continue, motorists after June 1 will have to contend with a major snag as Lake Street from Butterfield Road to the highly used Butler Lake Park and from West Street to Brainerd Avenue is resurfaced.
“From the standpoint of the volume of traffic that goes through there it’s a big project,” Heinz said. “We’re not shutting the road down during the day (but) we’ll urge motorists to avoid Lake Street.”
Federal funding will cover 70 percent of the project’s nearly $1.1 million cost.