Construction season in Riverside seems like it started last summer and never ended, what with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s ongoing sewer lining project, a major village-led storm sewer project under way in the First Division and the comprehensive roof restoration project at the downtown train station.
June will see construction kick into another gear as the village embarks on its 2017 street resurfacing project, which will be confined to a handful of streets in the north half of the village.
Among the roads slated for resurfacing are Uvedale Road from Selborne Road to Southcote Road, Uvedale Court, Evelyn Road and Northwood Road from Akenside Road to North Delaplaine Road.
On May 18, the Riverside Village Board voted to award Christopher B. Burke Engineering Ltd., which serves as the village’s engineering firm, an $817,110 contract to serve as the general contractor for the street resurfacing project.
The village is funding the improvements through a combination of non-home rule sales tax revenues and proceeds from a bond issue approved by voters in 2014.
In addition to resurfacing the roadway, crews will remove and replace deteriorated manholes as well as sections of concrete curbs, gutters and driveway aprons. The concrete and manhole work will kick off in mid-June, said Public Works Director Edward Bailey.
The street resurfacing project is expected to wrap up by August, said Bailey.
Big break on sidewalk costs
Riverside will also benefit this year by rolling its 2017 sidewalk replacement project into its street resurfacing package. Typically, the street and sidewalk projects are bid separately and done at different times.
This year, the two projects are being packaged, which has resulted in the village receiving a large break on the cost for exposed aggregate concrete for its sidewalks. In 2016, the village paid $12 per square foot for exposed aggregate. This year the cost is $6.50 per square foot.
The area targeted for sidewalk replacement in 2017 is bounded roughly by Desplaines Avenue, Northwood Road and Delaplaine Road.
The lower concrete cost will allow the village to expand the sidewalk replacement program somewhat this year.
“We’ll be adding another block or two to [the area being targeted for sidewalk replacement] based on the pricing, as long as it’s near that area,” Bailey said.
Parking added on East Ave.
This year’s street improvement program will include a small project to remove a sidewalk bump-out on East Avenue in order to add two more parking spaces on that block.
The present bump-out was enlarged as part of an overhaul of the area in and around Centennial Park in 2010 to create an area suitable for outdoor dining on East Avenue. However, the bump-out has never served that purpose and, according to Bailey, is pitched in way that makes it unlikely to ever be used that way.
Township grant for Columbus Blvd.
Finally, Riverside Township has agreed to provide a grant of up to $15,000 to resurface Columbus Boulevard, a grandly named 250-foot stretch of deteriorating roadway in Riverside Lawn that leads north from 39th Street to the Riverside Public Works facility.
That work is also part of the village’s 2017 street improvement package.
