Barrington 220 has bridge-sized problem to solve this summer

Along with more typical summer projects like resurfacing pavement and replacing light bulbs, Barrington Area Unit School District 220 staff members have an unusual task on their plate - building a bridge.

Two months ago, the bridge that connects the "Field of Dreams" athletic area and parking lot to the rest of the Barrington High School campus collapsed. A temporary pedestrian bridge has since been erected, but the district is planning to build a better, permanent bridge over Flint Creek, once it figures out how.

"I'll admit, this is a new one for me," Superintendent Brian Harris said at the board meeting Tuesday. "Never had to purchase a new bridge as a school district before. It's unique, so we really have to take our time on this and do our homework."

Dan Opels, the district's assistant director of buildings and grounds, said officials hope to build the new bridge better than what was there. The old bridge, believed to have been built in 1973, was used only by pedestrians and the occasional golf cart.

"Hopefully (the new bridge) will be highway-rated so you could drive a truck over it if you want," Opels said.

A highway-rated bridge also could accommodate emergency vehicles should a fire break out at the concession stand or an athlete on the softball, baseball or soccer fields suffer a serious injury.

Board member Penny Kazmier said the details on the bridge are still coming together, but the district is hoping to have it installed by Oct. 1.

While the plans for the bridge are not far enough along for the board to take action, it did approve just under $2 million in other summer projects.

About $217,000 of that will go toward renovating paving surfaces.

"We're committed to maintaining," Kazmier said. "With pavement, once you start to let it go then you have to do more layers of repairing."

Kazmier said the paving work will include a road at Prairie Middle School in Barrington that will hopefully ease traffic in the area. She said a service road near the mobile classrooms will be renovated so it can accommodate school buses.

Kazmier said currently you'll see buses stacked up two deep in the parking lot in front of the school, which leads to traffic backing up on Dundee Road.

"It causes some potential road traffic and possible safety issues," she said.

Despite all the work that will get done, several projects had to be left off the list because the bids from contractors came back too high. "Our needs are always greater than what we spend," Kazmier said.