Glen Ellyn moves forward with Taylor Avenue underpass plans

Despite cost concerns, the Glen Ellyn village board has approved an engineering contract that brings the community one step closer to getting a new pedestrian underpass at Taylor Avenue.

The underpass east of downtown, which handles both vehicular and pedestrian traffic, is causing safety concerns because the road is only 10 feet wide and runs against a 3-foot-wide sidewalk.

The proposed $2.4 million project calls for building a new tunnel for pedestrians east of the underpass between Walnut and Willis with a connection to the Illinois Prairie Path.

The village has received a federal grant to cover 75 percent of the construction costs up to $1.8 million.

In preparation for that work, the board voted 4-3 to approve a $90,000 contract, including a 5 percent contingency, with Alfred Benesch & Company to provide the first phase of engineering services for the project. The total cost of engineering services for the entire project will come to roughly $206,000.

"This is a firm that has excellent qualifications in terms of structural engineering," the village's professional engineer Bob Minix said.

But some trustees said they would prefer to hire Rempe-Sharpe & Associates for the engineering work. That firm's proposal for the first phase of engineering for the project was $75,000 and its proposal for both phases came in at $151,000.

But Minix did not advise going with the less-expensive firm.

"In terms of the quality of (Rempe-Sharpe's) proposal and the depth of the team they were offering, it does not provide the package that we need for this in order to move ahead as quickly as possible," he said. "And they didn't have the depth of experience that I felt was adequate."

Not everyone agreed.

"I struggle to understand why a credentialed, respected firm that has done similar projects and has professional engineers on staff would somehow just be completely unaware of well-recognized and well-accepted alternative forms of construction," Trustee Tim Elliott said. "I would go solidly with Rempe-Sharpe."

Trustee Dean Clark said he also leaned toward Rempe-Sharpe as a way to save money.

Trustees Pete Ladesic, Tim O'Shea and Jim Burket voted to give the contract to Benesch, while Trustees Diane McGinley, Clark and Elliott voted no.

To break the tie, President Alex Demos voted to approve the contract with Benesch.