[MAY 12, 2006]
Road and bridge committee members made a decision
to recommend to the county board acceptance of an intergovernmental
agreement with the city of Lincoln to share costs of the renovation
of Fifth Street from Lincoln Parkway to Interstate 55. The agreement
would launch an updated study of the Fifth Street Road project.
Board member Dick Logan interrupted proceedings at Thursday
evening's work session when the matter was not brought up by the
committee and asked about it.
Logan County State's Attorney Tim Huyett approved the agreement
from a legal standpoint, and it has been approved by the county
engineer, Bret Aukamp.
However, chairman Terry Werth said that they would not bring it
forward this month because other board members have concerns about
moving it forward at this time.
The city of Lincoln has it on their agenda to pass their portion
of the intergovernment agreement on Monday.
City engineer Mark Mathon said at their April 25 meeting that the
county wanted to see where the funds for the project would come from
written into the contract. He said that the city would draw from
their accumulated FAU FDC annual allotment to go forward with this
project. They would also look for other funding.
Currently $772,000 is received through a federal transportation
fund recently released by the state of Illinois. Those funds, which
were applied for five years ago, are to be split 80 percent to the
county and 20 percent to the city for the project.
Of the anticipated $5 million project costs, the county is
responsible for 25 percent, which is $1.25 million, and the city for
75 percent, $3.75 million.
Spring work has begun for the county highway department. Aukamp
reported that crews have been out checking roads, patching and
filling in cracks, doing sign work, performing ditch and storm
cleanup.
Roadwork around the historic Elkhart bridge, which has been
delayed the last year, is expected to begin as soon as the Elkhart
Historical Society can acquire insurance for the bridge.
Other delayed roadwork on County Highway 10 near Elkhart could begin
soon also. Legal work is nearly complete and is only waiting for the
landowner to accept an offer.
Traffic counts to begin throughout Logan County this month
From the county engineer:
The traffic counts will be conducted at various locations all
across the county, including in each of the cities and villages.
There will be close to 2,000 locations on different roads and
streets that will be monitored. The Illinois Department of
Transportation recommends the locations.
The street departments from the various municipalities will be
conducting the counts in their own areas. The county highway
department will be conducting the counts on all the remaining
locations.
The information will be compiled by IDOT and will be incorporated
into an updated traffic map for the county. The information will
also be available on the IDOT website. The last time this was done
in Logan County was 1997.
