COD to add to parking plans
New sidewalks and a road-widening project at the College of DuPage are expected to cost $1.25 million on top of existing parking plans.
The bulk of the work is being required by the Village of Glen Ellyn.
As part of its nearly $300 million Facility Master Plan, the college is reworking parking lots and landscaping to accommodate the new buildings going up on campus. The third phase of the parking plan was projected at $6.5 million before the additional work.
One of the new buildings, the Technology Education Center, will sit at the southwest corner of Lambert Road and Fawell Boulevard. While construction plans call for sidewalks along Lambert in front of that building, they stop at its southern end.
The new plan required by the village will continue the sidewalks on the west side of the street south to College Road. That work is expected to cost $104,538.
College Road itself also will get improvements. The east/west street on the south side of the campus will be widened from Prairie Drive east to Park Blvd. Prairie Drive extends south from the Student Recreation Center.
A right-turn lane also will be added on Lambert at College so traffic can turn more easily without blocking northbound vehicles, explained Brian Kleemann, COD news bureau coordinator. The work on those two jobs is projected at $994,277.
Another sidewalk extending along the length of College from Lambert to Park is expected to cost $151,185. Kleemann said that job is the choice of the college, rather than the village.
To offset the cost of the work, college officials are hoping to use a credit from Abbey Paving, which built the ill-fated Parking Lot O in 2005. The lot was built during the winter months when the ground was frozen. When it thawed, the pavement shifted, making the lot unusable, according to college documents.
Although Trustee Joseph Snyder suggested the college try to get Abbey Paving to do the additional work at no extra cost to the college, the company is looking to issue a credit, explained Jim Koolish, program manager for The Rise Group, which is overseeing the college's facility plan.