DeKalb Times

DeKalb County Highway Committee met May 2.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

Chairman Deutsch called the meeting to order at 6:33 p.m. and Ms. Richardson called the roll. Committee members present were Ms. Emmer, Mr. Haier, Ms. Hoffman, Vice Chair Luebke and Chairman Deutsch. Ms. Ilenkihena joined the meeting at 7:02 pm. Mr. Marcinkowski was absent. The County Engineer Mr. Schwartz, Support Services Manager Ms. Richardson were also in attendance.

Approval of Agenda

Motion to approve the May 2, 2024 Agenda made by Emmer; seconded by Hoffman; Motion carried by voice vote.

Approval of Minutes

Motion to approve the April 4, 2024 regular Meeting Minutes made by Luebke; seconded by Haier; Motion carried by voice vote.

Public Comments – None

Considerations/Discussion Items - None

Chair’s Comments – None

County Engineer’s Comments

• Monthly Update on Projects

Mr. Schwartz went through several of the projects on the monthly Transportation Improvement Program, the items highlighted in red are those having updates.

Item #1 – Anderland Road Bridge – IDOT offices closed this Bridge located in Afton Road District last October, it has been in accelerated design to be ready for an August letting with construction within 2024. Preliminary Engineering is waiting for the biological review.

Item #3 – Community Outreach Building – parking lot resurfacing project is an internal project within the County. Last fall they did repairs to the underground tiles in this very wet area, choosing to wait until after winter settling to do the resurfacing. This was completed recently and also added curb and gutter in an area where missing. Public Building Commission paid for this project, the Highway Dept, did inspections.

Item #6 – Glidden Road Intersection – Just south of the Baseline intersection; we will be cutting down the hill to the south for better sight distance; the plans were to have the letting in conjunction with the Glidden Road resurfacing but the cultural review performed in February was delayed. Unfortunately, even though we received cultural clearance yesterday, it was the same day as the June letting deadline, so it will now have to be a Fall letting. We will move forward with the 6.5-mile paving project of Glidden Road, from Rt 64 to Rt 72, leaving a 500-foot gap at this intersection, which will be included next year when the intersection project is completed.

Item # 10 – Misc. Traffic Signal Upgrade – When this report was done last week it stated 0% completed but we are about 5% since participating in a conference call today with the consultant and City of Sycamore who has two intersections, the County has one intersection at Peace/Barber Greene. The City of DeKalb has the intersection of Glidden/Dresser which is west of the DeKalb High School. All these upgrades will be funded through DSATS. City of Sycamore is looking at getting pedestrian upgrades at four downtown intersections.

Item #12- Pearl Street Bridge – 100% of the land acquisitions are completed and ready to go. The Village of Kirkland takes over handling the construction portion. As a reminder the County oversaw the Engineering as part of using the County Federal Bridge dollars.

Item #15 – Plank Road Study – Is on hold until a Federal Coordination meeting in June; they will give their direction in the way to move forward. Then can get the exact realignment laid out before public outreach.

Item #16 – Plank Road Roundabout -This is designed at the North Grove/Lindgren intersection, the consultants are continuing with modeling and design work until the Federal Coordination meeting is held in June. Mr. Schwartz then explained how the federal rules figure the ROW value, how the real estate damages are considered. Everyone is working to have a pathway connection for a safe route to school. Mr. Schwartz is meeting with the IDOT Safety Bureau, to go over points to do a better application when asking for $1.5 million in safety dollars.

Item #17 – Pritchard Road Bridge – In working on the ROW acquisitions, an out-of-state LLC currently thinks floodplain land is worth $20,000 per acre. In the meanwhile, the project has been redesigned with steeper slopes in case additional ROW is not negotiated with property owners before going to letting.

Item #2 – Chicago-Rollo-W Suydam Paving – The state letting was held Friday, Curran Contracting Co was the low bidder for our DeKalb County’s portion of the 2.55 million dollars paving project connecting to Lee County and to LaSalle County. This came in $200,000 less than estimated.

• Legislative Update

Springfield action includes a bill to transfer quick claim from the Shabbona Lake State Park to the Prairie Band Potawatami Tribe. If that land transfers into the Sovereign Nation, then one lane would become part of the nation as the landowners owning to the center of the road. We are asking IDNR to quick claim to the County, Township and Village for 50’ total ROW, giving the ability to widen shoulders or even put in bike paths if we own extra ROW.

• DSATS Update

The DSATS Coordinator employee will begin June 3rd. He is an NIU graduate. DSATS also has a returning summer intern.

• Other Miscellaneous Updates

Two Engineering interns begin this month just in time for construction season. In mid-May, we will meet with the consultants of the Peace Road Bridge & Road Widening Project. At the Committee of the Whole meeting, it was questioned why wait to improve the Freed Road intersection with the next phase of project and not now. Mr. Schwartz explained currently this does not meet the warrants for a traffic signal, when Peace Road is a multi-land roadway it may very well warrant traffic signals. This project is in line for a letting this fall with construction requesting to begin in Spring 2025.

Old Business - None

New Business - None

Adjournment at 7:33 pm

Committee Action to Adjourn: Moved by Haier, seconded by Luebke; motion carried by voice vote.

https://dekalbcounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/packet-hwy-06062024.pdf