Eldamain Road Project Inches Toward Fruition

Kendall County officials hope construction can begin in 2015 on a section of Eldamain Road that would become a key truck route.

The County Board Tuesday approved a supplemental engineering contract of not more than $30,000 with Hutchinson Engineering Inc., the company finishing up Phase II engineering for improvements on Eldamain between the Menards Distribution Center in Plano, north to Galena Road.

Fran Klaas, Highway Department director, said when this engineering is finished, the project should be ready to be bid, with construction planned for 2015.

“It shouldn’t take more than one construction season,” he said.

Eldamain Road is the boundary between Yorkville and Plano, and is seen eventually as a major north-south route through Kendall County. One of the first steps toward that is getting the improvement between Galena Road and Menards, to better serve trucks.

Board member Dan Koukol, Highway Committee chairman, said that section to Menards should lessen the number of trucks traveling on Route 47 through Yorkville.

Klaas said the full project is estimated to cost $7 million.

Also on Tuesday, the Kane-Kendall Council of Mayors approved a $2.5 million grant from the federal government to put toward the project.

“That will help a lot,” Klaas said.

But the real project that will turn Eldamain into a major thoroughfare is the bridge over the Fox River.

That still is a long ways off, but Kendall County has gotten permission from the state to do Phase II engineering in preparation for the bridge project. The county has been using what is known as the Quality Based Selection process to pick an engineer for that project. The selection process allows the county to solicit interest from engineers as a professional service, rather than bid it directly and take the lowest bidder.

The company chosen eventually will not only do Phase II engineering, but will serve as a consultant throughout the bridge process.

County officials started with proposals from 10 area consulting firms. Those 10 were narrowed to three firms which came in for interviews with a committee of County Board Chairman John Shaw, Koukol (as Highway Committee chairman), Klaas and Andy Myers, also of the Highway Department.

After the interviews, the three were ranked, with HR Green, a national consulting company with six offices in Illinois, including Aurora and Yorkville, ranked first. The county now will negotiate a contract with the company that would come back to the County Board for final approval.

The other two companies which made it to the final three were Hampton, Lenzini & Renwick, and Crawford, Murphy & Tilly.

Full story here.

If you think you may be affected by the Eldamain Road Project and/or are interested in a free consultation, contact our eminent domain landowner attorneys at 1-888-318-3761 or visit us on the web at www.landownerattorneys.com.

Sever Storey will be having a free, landowner seminar on this project on Monday, March 10, 2014 at the following location:

Sugar Grove Public Library

125 S. Municipal Drive, Sugar Grove, IL

6:15-7:15 pm

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