Village of Lombard Public Works Department Recycles Material From One Job To Another

Lombard's Public Works Department employees, during a recent brainstorming session, used a bit of ingenuity and came up with the idea to use material that would be dug up from one project as fill for another. The projects are the Finley Road Pond and Morris Pond expansions and the construction of the Great Western Trail Bridge.

“To help with storm management, both the Finley Road Pond and the Morris Pond will be expanded, meaning that some of the earth around the current ponds will be dug up and removed,” said Paul Kuehnlenz, Civil Engineer with Lombard's Public Works Department. “At the same time, we were working on the bridge project, which will require fill as part of the materials. The project scope was written to include the earth from one project as useful material in the other, saving the Village from having to pay to have the ponds excavated,” he added.

Neither of the projects will be completed until 2012 but the Village will reap benefits in terms of cost savings from the beginning as a result of the ingenuity exercised by the Public Works Department.

During the past few years, all Village departments have been looking at various ways to save money, reduce Village expenditures and combine resources yet still deliver the same quality services that Lombard residents expect to receive. Thinking outside the box when it comes to Village projects is one such way the Lombard Public Works Department is doing just that.