County Road and Bridge subcommittee meeting
By Jim Allen
The Douglas County Road and Bridge Subcommittee met on July 8, 2020 at 9:00 a.m.
Present were Don Munson, Chairman and committee members Dick Hein and Tom Glenn. Also present were Jim Crane, County Engineer, and members of the public.
Jim Crane reported that the work is ongoing in regards to Cronus Chemicals. He is continuing work with IDOT on the scheduling of the approval of funding for the needed road work to support the project.
Crane then reported on the status of the Industrial Wind Turbine complex in Newman and Murdock Townships. The last turbine was completed last week and the large cranes have been dismantled and are being removed from the site. The largest crane takes 72 trucks to move it to another site. The sites that were constructed to enable the large loads to access local roads are being removed and reclaimed.
Chastain and Associates are continuing the survey and design work for the post-construction road work. Crane, Chastain and Associates, and EDPR will be in talks regarding the needed remediation. EDPR has hired Hanson Group to double check the requirements regarding the rebuilding of the roads in the footprint. At this time there are approximately 100’s of county roads south of Longview that need to be repaired due to a crane crossing. There is a noticeable dip in the road.
It is very likely that the road work will not be completed this year. Before any remediation can be done, bridges and culverts will have to be inspected and any damage corrected before roads will be rebuilt. Oil and chipping has a cut off date in early fall and nothing can be done until the removal of turnouts and the laydown yard are complete. The traffic necessary for the removal of these areas would degrade any work done before their removal. Time estimates for removal of these areas is 30-45 days which will preclude much work before next year.
Some areas will require extensive work, among them County Highway 4 which will necessitate removal of all material down to the sub grade. Over time mud has been incorporated into the material and must be removed before remediation. No rock that has been used to cover existing roads may be used in the reconstruction work because it is no longer state certified.
If large equipment is needed for upgrades or repair in the future, a new Road Use Agreement will have to be negotiated.
The Committee will be recommending to the full board a County Aid Township Bridge petition in an amount not to exceed $26,812.50 (50 percent of the total cost) for assistance in replacing a failed bridge at 625 N CY 800 E west of Galton, IL.
Another project in Sergeant Township, scheduled for bidding in March of 2021, will instead be out for bid in March of 2022. During the environmental update procedure it was determined that the previous environmental work would have to be restarted due to the age of the report. This work will take a year to complete, which will delay the project until 2022. Rights of Way will be secured this fall so the project will be ready for bid and work when approved.
