Construction on a new concrete walking path along the riverbank in Swan Pond Park in Riverside should begin in mid-August now that village trustees voted 5-0 on July 15 to award a $599,622 construction contract for that project and two other sidewalk replacement projects to A Lamp Concrete, which submitted the lowest of five bids for the job.
Of the contract’s total amount, the Swan Pond path accounts for $426,337 of the total and will result in a 10-foot wide, roughly 2,100-foot-long exposed aggregate concrete path that will follow the contour of an existing asphalt path, which was constructed in 2012 and has deteriorated badly in some sections due to erosion from floods.
Despite increasing the width of the path by as much as six feet in some areas, Public Works Director Dan Tabb said the village only needed to remove two trees to accommodate the new path. In some spots the path’s width will be reduced to avoid disturbing existing trees the village wished to save.
The scope of work also includes the installation of limestone ledge rock in three locations that have been particularly prone to erosion during flood events. In the northernmost location, where the river bends sharply east toward the library, the limestone ledges will be stair-stepped to provide a river access/egress point.
Over and above the construction cost for the path, Riverside also paid about $76,000 in engineering/design costs to Christopher B. Burke Engineering Ltd., which is overseeing construction as well, bringing the total cost of the Swan Pond Path project to $502,697.
Riverside is paying for the bulk of that total through a pair of grants, a $350,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and a $50,000 Invest in Cook grant from Cook County.
Tabb said the Swan Pond Path construction schedule is 30 working days, but that the pace of work will depend on weather conditions.
Swim club sidewalk project
In order to obtain more competitive pricing for the Swan Pond Park path, Riverside rolled two other sidewalk projects into its bid packet.
The larger of the two is the village of Riverside’s regularly scheduled 2021 sidewalk replacement program, a $110,290 line item that will focus efforts on replacing about 8,300 square feet of deteriorated and dangerous sidewalk squares in various parts of the village’s Second Division, which is located south of the BNSF tracks east of downtown.
The construction contract with A Lampe Concrete also includes a $22,995 line item to construction a sidewalk along the north side of Bloomingbank Road in front of Riverside Swim Club from the village’s commuter parking lot to the swim club’s parking lot.
Riverside Swim Club is paying for the entire cost of construction that sidewalk, agreeing to do so as part of the conditions for the village approving the comprehensive renovation of the pools and clubhouse last September.
