Board to fix bumpy driveway, sinking school
Lake Zurich High School students, parents and visitors will have a smoother ride this fall once potholes along the school's main driveway are fixed.
The school board's committee of the whole approved the roadwork Thursday night at a special meeting.
The work includes storm sewer repairs to correct drain and flooding problems where the driveway dips toward parking areas, resurfacing and widening the road, adding four-way stops in some places and redesigning the traffic flows to improve safety, Superintendent Brian Knutson said.
The construction contract for $421,364 was awarded to Maneval Construction Co. of Grayslake.
Natural drainage of rainwater underneath the driveway was responsible for its deterioration, Knutson said.
"On top of the safety issue, it just looks terrible," Knutson said. "We don't want a car to sink in a pothole."
School board members agreed the potholes were a liability issue.
"It's a tort and we need to fix it so that nobody gets hurt," school board member John Kropf said.
The resurfacing is expected to be completed within the next couple of weeks before school starts later this month.
"We are promised a serviceable entryway by the beginning of the school year," said Raelynn Roman, interim assistant superintendent of business and operations.
The high school driveway has needed repairs for years, but the problem was set aside due to budget constraints and because it was not an urgent life safety issue.
"It's time," said Michael Egan, Lake Zurich High principal. "Every time it rains, it floods. There's puddles. Cars are bottoming out coming up the driveway. It got really beat up 4 years ago with all the construction. It's long overdue."
The driveway expansion also will alleviate traffic backups onto Midlothian Road, Egan said.
School board members also approved a payment of $560,818 for remedial structural repairs completed at Middle School North in Hawthorn Woods to stop the school from sinking.
A portion of the 3-year-old middle school was built on unstable soil, a problem district officials discovered in spring 2006.
The first phase of repairs, which started the day after the last school year ended, involved underpinning the fine and applied arts wing of the school building with 239, 20- to 50-foot screws, 1½ inches in diameter.
The second phase of repairs at the middle school are cosmetic and involve fixing walls that have cracked due to the building's sinking. That is estimated to cost at least $100,000.
"We're going to start some of that (repair work) this fall, but most of it is next summer," Knutson said. "We are hoping to get that recouped."
District officials are exploring a lawsuit to recover the cost of the middle school repair work from responsible parties, though they have not divulged any names thus far.