Villa Park captures public works honor

Villa Park has received an award from the American Public Works Association for the Suburban Branch Public Works Project of the Year for its work in the disaster or emergency construction/repair category of less than $5 million.

The award celebrated the village's response to an emergency bridge repair on St. Charles Road over Salt Creek after learning last August that the bridge rating had been lowered by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

With a 15-ton weight restriction taking immediate effect, the village moved quickly to address the public safety concern and a potential traffic bottleneck.

"Our public works department should be congratulated for bringing all parties together on short notice in tackling this emergency situation," Village President Al Bulthuis said.

"I'm also quite proud of our staff accomplishing a key public safety goal at minimal cost to taxpayers - less than $70,000 was expended overall."

The award is designed to promote excellence in the management and administration of public works projects.

"Our annual award program celebrates the best of what we do in public works," said Jeff Maczko, awards co-chairman for the Suburban Branch.

"This year's awards committee felt that the culmination of intergovernmental partnering, a unique use of the design-build contract, and the expedited time frame in which the work was completed made the St. Charles Road Bridge Emergency Repair Project a true deserving recipient of the award."

The village board approved proceeding with a temporary repair of the St. Charles Road Bridge in September 2017. The public works department then partnered with the engineering consulting firm V3 Companies to assemble a team in maintaining the 15-ton weight limit until the bridge is reconstructed.

Emergency work included lane reconfigurations, support beam installations, rerouting of Pace buses, changeable message boards and more.