By Jason Crane
The Aurora City Council is considering a Resolution to help provide relief to residents from traffic noise on Orchard Road.
The City Council is set to approve a Resolution authorizing payment to Kane County Division of Transportation in the amount of $94,445.88 for the City’s 50% cost share of recent major roadway repairs to Orchard Road and the execution of an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Aurora and the county of Kane for Orchard Road fence replacement.
City government of Aurora documents show this will allow the replacement of the fence along Orchard Road between Indian Trail and Prairie Street.
On November 10, 1992, the City and the County entered into an amended memorandum of agreement concerning joint construction of the Kane County Highway No. 83 (Orchard Road). This agreement, which superseded “certain agreements pertaining to this subject dated January 15, 1974 and April 15, 1985”, was approved by the city of Aurora via Resolution R92-499 December 1, 1992 and stated that “major road repair and resurfacing will be shared 50%/50% City/County”. This cost share has been applied to several projects over the years and is the basis for approval of the requested payment of $94,445.88 for recent patching, curb replacement, and signage repairs.
As part of the widening of Orchard Road in 2004, the County, at the City’s request, included the construction of approximately 63,300 square feet of wooden privacy fence at various locations between Indian Trail and Prairie Street. The City has been responsible for ongoing maintenance of the fence as required per the 1992 IGA, making annual repairs including the replacement of broken and/or deteriorated planks and posts. Both the City and County, however, believe that those repairs are no longer sufficient, as continued normal wear and tear and natural deterioration have caused the fence to approach the end of its useful and serviceable life.
In order to get an estimate of the funding necessary to replace the fence, the City enlisted HR Green in 2017 to provide an opinion of probable cost for three options: Replacement of the existing wood fence in kind, a new pre-cast/pre-stressed concrete panel wall, and a new IDOT sound wall.
Following the evaluation of HR Green’s opinion of costs, the City determined that the wood fence replacement would be functionally inadequate and the IDOT sound wall would not be cost effective. Therefore, it was determined that the best choice is the pre-cast, prestressed concrete panel wall at a recently updated estimated cost of $4,071,000, which includes engineering and construction.
Over the past decade, City administration and Ward 5 alderman, Carl Franco, have actively sought outside funding assistance to help cover as much of the cost of replacing the fence as possible. These efforts have resulted in securing $1.3 million from four separate grants from the State of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity which will be combined with $500,000 in accumulated Ward Funds to be contributed by alderman Franco.
Since replacement of the fence was not specifically addressed in the 1992 IGA, City and Kane County staff members engaged in iterative negotiations to facilitate a viable arrangement to cover the remaining costs of replacement of the fence and ultimately drafted a new IGA. This new IGA states that both the City and County will cover 50% of the estimated cost of engineering and construction of replacement of the existing wooden fence in kind ($1,018,000 each).
The premium for upgrading to the pre-cast, pre-stressed panel wall will then be the responsibility of the 74 owners of the properties directly abutting the fence. After reducing this amount by the $1.8 million secured from the State and alderman Franco, the remaining balance of approximately $235,000 will be paid through a Special Service Area agreement to be proposed to the 74 owners this fall.
The $94,445.88 in recent repairs will be paid using account 340-4060-431.73-91, which has a current balance of $703,128.88.
Execution of this IGA is necessary to facilitate the construction of the proposed wall. Replacement of the existing fence will provide significant improvements in noise reduction, safety, and appearance for not only the 74 owners directly impacted, but all users of Orchard Road. Further, replacing the wooden fence with a concrete wall which has a service life of more than 50 years will mostly eliminate the need to provide recurring repairs and maintenance to the fence, which have averaged approximately $8,000 per year.
Final approval for the Resolution is set to be made at the October 8 Aurora City Council meeting.