Riverside is full steam ahead on renovating Parking Lot 8 at 44 E. Quincy Street.
At the village board’s June 6 meeting, trustees approved a contract with MYS, Incorporated, a contractor based in Palos Heights, for construction work on the parking lot, which will see it repaved with permeable pavers. The project will also involve the addition of two new accessible parking spots — to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act — and the removal of the lot’s curb peninsulas to put in two new parking spots that can be permitted to commuters.
The contract was passed as part of the board’s consent agenda at that meeting, meaning trustees did not discuss the matter or vote on it individually.
Riverside staff monitored the usage of parking spots at the lot through April and May. As of May 16, village staff were preparing to survey nearby businesses to gauge how often their employees park in the lot.
MYS’s bid for the project came in at $671,112.35, beating out four other firms whose estimates for the project were more costly, ranging from about $8,000 higher up to over $280,000 higher. Still, the accepted bid was more than $125,000 higher than the estimate provided by Christopher B. Burke Engineering Ltd., the village’s engineering and design firm for the renovations.
Since December 2023, the village has approved $488,841 for construction on the parking lot, meaning MYS’s bid — and the project’s final price tag — is over budget by about $180,000. Adding MYS’s bid to $70,750 that the village approved last July for Burke’s work brings the project’s total cost to $741,862.35.
Luckily for Riverside, the village won’t have to bear the weight of the full price to make the parking lot more sustainable and accessible. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago pledged last June to reimburse the village for $256,000 toward the project as part of its Green Infrastructure Partnership program, meaning Riverside has agreed to pay $485,862.35. Trustees formalized the partnership with the MWRD in February.
The district will deliver its funding to Riverside in four equal disbursements of $64,000 as each quarter of the construction work is completed. The village will be on tap for any construction not finished by 2025.
Once MYS installs permeable pavement at the lot, it will be Riverside’s third green parking lot. Permeable pavement promotes the absorption of rainwater and snowmelt into the ground beneath it, reducing both the amount of water that flows into sewers through storm drains or nearby bodies of water and the associated risk of flooding during heavy rain or after significant snowfall. According to Riverside’s agreement with the MWRD, the lot’s roughly 14,000 square feet of permeable pavement will be able to capture at least 72,400 gallons of stormwater at a time.
Accessible parking
As part of the reconstruction, Riverside is required to designate two of the parking lot’s spaces as accessible parking spots that meet ADA standards, meaning they cannot be leased as a source of revenue for the village and must be reserved for drivers who have disabilities.
Riverside officials had thought two other permitted spots in the lot would have to be eliminated to serve as access aisles for people with disabilities to use to enter or exit their cars; however, at the village board’s April 18 meeting, Village Manager Jessica Frances said village engineers had realized they could place the two accessible spots adjacent to one another with a single access aisle in the middle, effectively saving the village one permittable parking spot.
The village expects to lose about $2,000 in annual revenue from the elimination of the three permitted spots.
At that board meeting, village staff asked trustees to approve a final design for the parking lot. Alongside the choice to simply lose the three permittable spots, Frances presented trustees with two options to add two new spots to the parking lot. The addition would mean that, overall, the village would only lose one spot’s revenue. Both options involved getting rid of two pedestrian peninsulas that jut into the parking lot from the northern sidewalk.
The difference lies in the two sets of stairs in the middle of the parking lot near the peninsulas that grant access to the train platform. One option would have seen the stairs removed completely, costing the village about $31,00. The other, which trustees chose after about 20 minutes of discussion, will see the stairs redone to incorporate ADA-compliant handrails, running just under $47,000. The price to renovate the stairs is included in the village’s approved cost for the overall project.
Two sets of stairs at each end of the parking lot will not be touched during the renovations.
According to village estimates, the extra revenue from the two new spots will cover the added cost to eliminate the peninsulas and renovate the stairs after 35 years, a length of time that would only get shorter following any future increases to the cost of parking permits.
Frances said at the meeting that, due to the stairs’ heavy incline, it would not be possible to put in a wheelchair-accessible ramp instead. The train platform will still not be directly accessible to wheelchair users parking in the lot; they will still have to head around the corner to get to the platform via Riverside Road. She said the village suggests wheelchair users try to park in Parking Lot 1 off Bloomingbank Road, as it has better access to the platform.
