On Jan. 10, the Burr Ridge Mayor and Board of Trustees heard the village’s annual roads repair plan for the new year.
The plan didn’t offer any surprises or real changes of the village’s ongoing efforts to keep existing roads to a rating of good — meaning the village could spend more money in the short term to offset catastrophic failures and emergency expenses over the long term.
Village Director of Public Works David Pressig started his presentation with a wrap up of the 2022 plan with the news that the projects came in under budget but also slightly behind schedule due to a strike.
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“We ended up $158,162 below budget,” he said of the repair plan. “That’s embarrassingly low but for good reason.”
First, the good news. The 89th Street patching work ended up costing much less than budgeted because Pressig said he only had an inaccurate estimate of what the project would cost as the village hadn’t ever patched the road before.
“We anticipated a lot of extra patching that wasn’t needed,” he said.
He went on to say, however, that a worker strike among the employees of the contractors awarded bids cost the village seven weeks’ of work, which pushed work into September, though he added the delay didn’t really impact the amount of finished work, as the village had expected to start the project early in the year anyway. Nevertheless, he said some minor work was missed — but the village didn’t pay for that, and this also contributed to the savings.
“Our work did get done,” Pressig said. “All the resurfacing got done, some patching did not.”
All other preventive work was done on time and within budget. In total, the village came in at $165,000 under budget.
From there, Pressig looked forward to this year, noting that the public works department would continue to focus mostly on upkeep and routine maintenance in order to maximize the life of the pavement, as opposed to rebuilding whole roads from scratch after they’ve deteriorated beyond repair.
“We try to extend the life of the road to keep that cycle of resurfacing longer, to keep our overall costs down,” he said.
For the 2023 program, the village plans to do extensive work at the Devon of Burr Ridge subdivision at an estimated cost of $763,500 as well as various other streets as needed for $135,000. The Devon of Burr Ridge program will repair all streets in that subdivision. The total for all projects is $954,500
“Which puts us on par with what we’ve done in other years,” Pressig said.
He also added the village will get a bit more money from the local fuel tax, as it’s based on population, so as that ticks up, so, too, will revenue.
Typically, that fund pays for repair-adjacent roads programs.
“The motor fuel tax is eligible to pay for other services like tree trimming and salt services,” Pressig said.
He added he expects the village will be able to award contracts by February, which is early even for Burr Ridge.
“Typically, we’re just out to bid in February,” Pressig said. “So, we’re really going to get out in front of this.”
One new project this year, however, will be a streets survey.
This is a survey the public works department does every two years, and last performed in 2021.
The survey grades streets on 13 distress factors and based on the average, each street is given a grade, so the village has an idea of the condition of each road.
“That gives us the data we need to develop our road program,” he said.
Mayor Gary Grasso recommended the board pass the plan, and they did — unanimously and without comment.
This was the only item for consideration at the meeting. However, in some late-breaking news, Grasso alerted the board that Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin announced his resignation, effective immediately, though it’s not clear what that will mean in terms of Springfield representation.
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“There’s no indication, as of now, who will replace him,” Grasso said. “It’s a Republican seat, so it’s a Republican choice.”
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.