Machesney Park moves along with road resurfacing program

By Bob Balgemann

Reporter

MACHESNEY PARK – Some roads in the village will be resurfaced this summer as part of the annual maintenance program.

Engineering has been accomplished by McMahon Engineers/Architects and presuming approvals in the near future, work should be finished by the end of August.

Here are some of the highlights of the project:

* Final surfacing of roads that were rebuilt last year. They are Copper, Emerald, Ruby, Pershing, Marquette, Liberty Wilshire, Gilbert, Erma and Leland.

* Areas along Minns Drive, mainly around the 1100 block, have aged rather rapidly over the past two years. Improvements are on the list for this year.

* The west end of Van Stone Drive has had a number of settlements in the pavement, which affect the ride quality of vehicles. These will be fixed before the new surface is applied. In addition, the new surface will match that which is being applied to Copper.

Village Engineer Chris Dopkins provided a schedule to the public improvement  and safety committee (PISC) at its April 18 meeting.

The resolution approved that night will be forward to the full village board for consideration at the Monday, May 2, meeting. He said he would like the bid authorization resolution ready for the May 16 PISC meeting. Then the construction contract would be awarded at the June 20 or July 5 board meeting.

The village-wide maintenance program will cost an estimated $842,000. Projected design-build and constructing engineering costs total $32,132, which is 3.8 percent of the overall expense. That is well under the engineering costs that usually run 12-25 percent of the overall expenditure.

Dopkins explained the difference this way:

“…the maintenance program tends to have much lower engineering costs as it is not necessary to send field crews to collect survey data, or design/draft a detailed plan set. The maintenance program also tends to have a rather short construction timeframe, when compared to a conventional project, which reduces the construction engineering costs.”

Scott/Heron project

Also April 18, during the village board meeting, trustees approved a resolution awarding a contract for improvements to the Scott Lane, Heron Drive area.

The accepted low bid was submitted to N-Trak Group in the amount of $841,998.21. The other four quotes ranged from $875,216 to $1.025 million. The engineering estimate for the project was $856,286.25

Scope of the project is reconstruction of Scott between Roosevelt Road and Heron to a curb and gutter standard. It also includes extension of the storm sewer along Heron, to remedy flooding at the intersection of Heron and Mildred.

Pavement on Heron will be removed and replaced, with the curbing and sidewalk being removed and replaced as needed to accommodate the storm sewer improvements.

A total of seven general contractors and two plan rooms obtained bid documents, with five bids being submitted.