Three Lake County communities join forces for local road work bid
One aspect of daily living that won't change this spring because of the coronavirus is the annual road repair and resurfacing programs in Libertyville, Vernon Hills and Mundelein.
Whatever directives are forthcoming from state government, work on local streets in the three communities is expected to start after May 1.
More than $2.8 million in work is scheduled for the 2020 road construction season, the second in which the three towns bid as a single entity to save money through economies of scale.
Mundelein and Vernon Hills already have approved the joint bid of $2.8 million to Brothers Asphalt Paving LLC of Addison. Libertyville is expected to do the same on Tuesday.
Vernon Hills is coordinating the joint bid this year. About $980,000 of work is planned in the village's Hawthorn Club, Old Grove Farm and Sugar Creek subdivisions.
In Mundelein, about $950,000 in work will be focused in the Cambridge North subdivision, southwest of Winchester and Midlothian roads.
Libertyville's work will be on Juniper Parkway and connecting streets, as well as Mayfair Drive.
Adam Boeche, Mundelein's director of public works and engineering, said the village last year saved about $150,000 by bidding with Vernon Hills and Libertyville rather than on its own. That meant the village was able to complete about 20% more work.
"The analysis validated all of our hypothesis about the joint venture, which is why we continued to move forward with it again this year," he said.
The costs in all three communities are about the same as previous years.
However, communities will have to become more creative with funding going forward because of an expected drop in state motor fuel tax revenues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Paul Kendzior, Libertyville public works director.
This year's bid was questioned by the second lowest bidder, Peter Baker & Sons of Lake Bluff, which was about $3,700 higher than Brothers. Peter Baker protested, saying Brothers lacked the proper certification for the necessary scale of asphalt production.
But the villages can waive technicalities if determined to be to their benefit, according to information supplied to the Libertyville village board. In this case, it was determined the pool of bidders would decrease significantly and a potential monopolistic situation would arise if the low bid wasn't accepted.
So, as long as the material supplier proposed by Brothers is certified by the Illinois Department of Transportation and Brothers would guarantee the needed volume, there was no reason to reject the low bid, officials say.
"All three public works directors and our consultant and our attorney have looked at this, and we all agree with the recommendation to proceed, said David Brown, Vernon Hills public works director/village engineer.