Elburn. Kane studying Anderson Road bridge, extension pact
The Elburn village board took its first look this week at an agreement for the building and maintenance of the proposed Anderson Road extension and bridge over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.
The Kane County Board’s transportation committee is scheduled to discuss the contract Tuesday, Elburn Village Administrator Erin Willrett said.
The agreement calls for Kane County to handle construction of the project. Once it is done, responsibility for maintenance and repairs will be turned over to Elburn.
The road and bridge are expected to cost $21.72 million.
One point village trustees want to nail down is exactly how much the village has to pay for it, Willrett said.
The road and two-lane bridge are to be paid for with federal, state, county and village money.
The 2005 federal Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act — A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU for short) transportation bill earmarked a little more than $7.6 million for the project. That bill expired two years ago, but Congress extended it eight times. The current extension expires March 31. The House is considering a new transportation bill, and the Senate is considering an extension. The House Bill does not contain earmarks, unlike SAFETEA-LU, which had 6,300 earmarks.
The federal Surface Transportation Program is chipping in another $2.55 million, and the Illinois Commerce Commission is picking up $7.9 million.
Shodeen Inc. owns the land needed for the road and bridge. It is negotiating with Kane County for the right of way.
Shodeen plans to build a residential and commercial development, Elburn Station, that would straddle Anderson, from Keslinger Road to Route 38. The road and bridge are incorporated in the preliminary planned unit development plan the village board is reviewing.
The engineering work for the project is done, said Tom Rickert, deputy director of the county’s transportation division. If the county can get the right of way by summer, it could start building the embankments for the bridge this fall, and finish the project in 2013, he said.
The bridge over the railroad tracks is expected to relieve traffic congestion, particularly truck traffic, on Route 47 through downtown Elburn. The Route 47 train crossing is at grade level.
Last week, Elburn Trustee William Grabarek reiterated that he feels like Shodeen is holding Anderson Road “hostage.” He pleaded with fellow trustees to put off consideration of the Elburn Station development until after the village finishes updating its comprehensive land-use plan, and suggested that the county could condemn the land needed for the bridge if Shodeen didn’t like the plan. But the other five board members said they didn’t want to hold up the Elburn Station process.