State grants kick off Lake County roadwork season
The arrival of roadwork season comes with a $10.8 million infusion of state money for Lake County and its municipalities and townships.
The funding is part of the third $250 million installment in grants for local projects through the Rebuild Illinois capital program.
This batch, announced Thursday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, is for projects such as road and bridge improvements, traffic signal upgrades, new storm sewers and bike paths, sidewalk replacements and long-term maintenance needs.
Rebuild Illinois was passed by the state legislature in 2019. In the current distribution, Lake County will receive $3.96 million, municipalities $6.62 million and townships $266,000.
The grants are made from bond sale proceeds and must be spent for transportation purposes with oversight by the Illinois Department of Transportation, said Al Giertych, assistant county engineer for the Lake County Division of Transportation.
The funds must be spent by January 2025 and only for certain types of projects with a useful life of more than 13 years, he added.
For communities, the grants range from $5,075 for Indian Creek, which straddles Route 45 just east of Route 83, to more than $978,000 for Waukegan.
Libertyville, for example, will apply its $223,140 grant toward the annual joint bid with Vernon Hills and Mundelein for local road resurfacing and associated work, such as sidewalk replacement.
The three villages have partnered in joint roadwork since 2019 as an economies of scale. This year's low bid for work in the three towns is just under $2.7 million. Libertyville's share would be $694.158 for 1.6 miles of work on eight streets.
North Chicago will use its $357,792 grant for design engineering to rebuild Argonne Drive from Green Bay Road to Sheridan Road. Construction is targeted for 2025.
With this distribution, Lake County has received just under $12 million to date under Rebuild Illinois, Giertych said. The county expects to get a total of just under $24 million when all distributions have been made after three years, he added.
So far, Lake County has allocated these funds for engineering phases of the Buffalo Grove Road expansion project, south of Route 45, and for a railroad bridge on Old McHenry Road at the CN railroad in Lake Zurich.
The county also has put the grant money toward construction at Hunt Club Road and Washington Street in Gurnee; reconstruction of Arlington Heights Road on the south end of the county; and, new roundabouts on Darrell Road in Wauconda Township, according to Giertych.