Kendall County Highway Department Committee met Sept. 14.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
MEMBERS PRESENT: Scott Gryder, Matt Kellogg, Brian DeBolt & Scott Gengler
STAFF PRESENT: Michele Riley and Francis Klaas
ALSO PRESENT: Kevin Berry
The committee meeting convened at 3:30 P.M. with roll call of committee members. Cesich absent. Quorum established.
Motion DeBolt; second Gengler, to approve the agenda as presented. Motion approved unanimously.
Motion Gengler; second Kellogg, to approve the Highway Committee meeting minutes from August 10, 2021. Motion approved unanimously.
Jackie Forbes, Council Director for Kane-Kendall Council of Mayors, made a presentation to the committee regarding the staffing, funding, and processes related to KKCOM. The Council is comprised of about 38 member agencies in the 7-county Chicago area. KKCOM staff represents Kane and Kendall Counties in planning and programming federal funds that flow from Washington to the Chicago Region. Jackie discussed the Regional Plan: ON TO 2050. She also discussed how Kendall County is represented in the several policy and technical committees that are part of CMAP. Both Chairman Gryder and Engineer Klaas thanked Jackie and KKCOM for their outstanding work and excellent service that they provide to Kendall County.
Motion Kellogg; second Gengler to recommend approval of a resolution renaming a portion of Budd Road to Budd Court. Klaas described the need to rename this portion of the road, as part of the reconfiguration at the Eldamain Road – Ill. Rte. 71 reconstruction. Motion approved unanimously.
Motion DeBolt; second Gengler to recommend approval of an intergovernmental agreement between the County of Kendall and the Village of Plainfield for signalization of the intersection of 143rd Street and Ridge Road. Chairman Gryder provided a brief history of this agreement, and the County’s desire to have Plainfield reclassify the zoning in the area of the intersection from residential to commercial and/or manufacturing. Language recommending this change has now been included in the IGA. Plainfield has already signed the agreement and is now sending it to the County for approval. Klaas indicated that $1,000,000 in County funds has been earmarked in 2023 for this project in the County’s 5-Year Plan. The improvement itself includes turning lanes and traffic signals on Ridge Road. Gryder pointed out that this is part of the WIKADUKE Trail and would likely need to be improved in the near future anyway. Motion approved unanimously.
Klaas presented a draft copy of the County’s 5-Year Surface Transportation Program update for 2022 – 2026. He explained that there have not been many significant changes to the program. Gengler asked about jurisdictional transfers, specifically about Van Emmon Road in Yorkville. Klaas described how county highways are supposed to start and stop at other county highways or state highways; and how Kendall County has been systematically making connections within municipalities, including Newark, Millington, Plano, and Yorkville. Jurisdictional transfers are then used to identify which agency is responsible for particular sections of roadways. This could potentially happen with Van Emmon Road. Gryder asked about Rock Creek Road and why that had not become a County Highway in the city limits. Klaas discussed the fact that Rock Creek Road was supposed to be a municipal street. An IGA from 2004 stated that Plano would accept a jurisdictional transfer of Rock Creek Road within the corporate limits within 5 years. That never happened.
Kellogg asked about a bridge replacement on Caton Farm Road near Arbeiter Road. Klaas indicated that there are plans prepared for that project; but he was waiting for more information on development plans within the City of Joliet.
Gryder asked about connecting Grove Road to Brisbin Road, and why that is not shown in the 5- Year Plan. Klaas discussed the conflicts with relocating Grove with the old Prairie Parkway alignment. Current plan is to simply connect Grove Road with Brisbin Road by using Sherrill Road as the connector. This is not quite as direct; but there are currently right and left turn lanes in place that accommodate these movements. Additionally, the traffic numbers are currently very low in this area. Klaas suggested that this would be a good project for the long range plan as opposed to the 5-Year Plan. Kellogg indicated that Brisbin Road in Grundy County is in very bad shape. He also suggested that perhaps the connection should be made in Grundy County instead of Kendall County, since Brisbin needs to be reconstructed anyway.
Gryder asked about the status of the WIKADUKE Trail in the Oswego area. This will likely be controlled by development in the Oswego area. Klaas stated that overall traffic on Ridge Road is really starting to increase. Gengler pointed out that Kendall County was the fastest growing county in the State from 2010 to 2020; and the east side of the county was the fastest growing part. So in essence, the east side of Kendall County is the fastest growing area in the State. After additional discussion, committee agreed that putting additional monies in the 5-Year Plan for Ridge Road corridor would be a good idea. With this change, committee approved sending the 5-Year Plan to the County Board for approval.
Committee discussed transfers to the KC-TAP Fund, which currently totals $50,000 per year. County Board recently approved $76,000 TAP Grant to KCFPD for multi-use path along Route 71. Kellogg and DeBolt felt that with increasing prices in all commodities, it would be a good time to increase the transfer to $75,000 per year. Klaas suggested that he could work with the State’s Attorney Office to draft up the proposed change and bring back to a future meeting.
Committee reviewed a crash report from IDOT for the Walker Road – Route 47 intersection. There were 12 crashes at said intersection in the 5-year time period from 2016 to 2020. Klaas compared this intersection to a couple of other intersections. During the same time period, there were 45 crashes at the intersection of Route 113 and Route 47, where there are rumble strips. At another location, there were 43 crashes at Grove Road and Route 126. He said that over the 5- year period, approximately 3 million vehicles had entered the Walker Road – Route 47 intersection; and there were only 12 crashes. Although there was a recent, horrific fatal crash at this location, the total number of crashes is relatively low. Gengler pointed out that the intersection is going to be reconstructed soon with the Route 47 reconstruction. The committee discussed possible safety improvements, including transverse rumble strips, flashing lights, and other remedies. The general consensus was to install flashing blinker stop signs at this intersection.
Chairman Gryder thanked everyone for attending the remote meeting at the intersection of Eldamain Road and River Road, near the site of the new Eldamain Bridge. Gryder asked Kevin Berry to describe the progress on the bridge. Berry reported that the new bridge has 8 spans and is nearly 1600’ long. Structural steel is scheduled to be delivered beginning October 12th. It will take about 3 months to set all the steel. Concrete bridge deck will be placed later next year. The contractor is ahead of schedule on both the bridge and the roadway. Concrete pavement is being placed now on multiple sections of the roadway. He discussed the planned RR work and closure of Fox Road for up to 90 days. Approximately 40% of the contract has been built already. Gryder reminded the committee that this is only the 8th bridge built across the Fox River in Kendall County, and only the second new location for a bridge built in over 100 years.
DeBolt discussed parking on Ben Street. He suggested that parking should be prohibited near the School Street intersection to improve sight distance. He also suggested that no commercial vehicles, trailers, RV’s and the like should be allowed to be parked on Ben Street. Kellogg suggested that this should be a county-wide ordinance prohibiting trailer parking. Klaas suggested that implementing county-wide parking restrictions gets a little tricky; and it might be a good idea to confer with the State’s Attorney Office in regard to this matter.
Motion DeBolt; second Gengler, to forward Highway Department bills for the month of September in the amount of $1,488,892.93 to the Finance Committee for approval. By roll call vote, motion approved unanimously.
Motion Kellogg; second Gengler, to adjourn the meeting at 4:55 P.M. Motion carried unanimously.
https://www.co.kendall.il.us/home/showpublisheddocument/21805/637717021581870000
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