Four years in, Elgin's Riverside Drive needs work
Four years after Riverside Drive was built in Elgin, the city will have to temporarily close the road to remove and reinstall its brick pavers.
That's because the construction project was done in an eco-friendly manner that comes with higher routine maintenance costs, Public Works Superintendent Greg Hulke said. "We will have to close the road for a bit," he said. "Ideally we would like to be done by June, and ideally we don't want the road closed by more than a couple of days."
The pavers - about 4,000 square feet - are permeable and part of a system that allows runoff water to seep through and be filtered before it discharges into the Fox River, Hulke said. But that also leads to settling that can cause the bricks to become uneven, leading to a somewhat bumpy ride, he said.
"I don't believe it's any sort of faulty construction. At this point I have no reason to believe that," Hulke said.
The project includes re-compacting the road base. Four construction companies submitted bids ranging from $24,200 to $42,500.
The $10.5 million, two-year project to rebuild Riverside Drive was finished in summer 2014 and managed by IHC Construction Companies of Elgin. Funding came from $9 million in state grant money and $1.5 million in city tax-increment financing district funds.
IHC Construction Vice President Walt Dwyer didn't return a request for comment Friday.
Hulke said he didn't know with certainty which subcontractor installed the brick pavers. One of the four bidders told Hulke the company did the work four years ago and was "not surprised that something has to be done occasionally," he said. Hulke declined to name the company, saying he needed to verify that.
None of the four bidders - Americana Landscape Group, TNT Landscaping Construction, C.R. Schmidt Inc. and Copenhaver Construction Inc. - returned requests for comment.
If the project is approved by the city council, it would be paid with TIF funds earmarked for streetscape and maintenance within the central business district, city spokeswoman Molly Center said.