While much of the Lake Street reconstruction project is on time or ahead of schedule, the village of Oak Park will delay a portion of it to allow local businesses to take advantage of summer weather for outdoor dining.
The overall $15 million project, which includes $3 million supplied by federal funds, includes the resurfacing of Lake Street and a streetscape plan between Harlem and Euclid avenues. Elements of the streetscape will include new sidewalks, lighting, traffic signals, landscaping, furniture and bike racks.
During a project update given to the village board July 6, village engineer Bill McKenna said he was looking for direction on when to begin work in the Hemingway District, specifically on Lake Street between Oak Park and Euclid avenues.
“At the current schedule, we would want to get in there from a contractor standpoint in August to start work,” McKenna said. “Due to COVID-19 though, we thought it would be a good idea to discuss a couple scheduling options for restarting work in that stretch of Lake Street, since those businesses have been allowed to reopen.”
McKenna said some businesses are currently using parking lanes on the roadway as outdoor dining spaces. Whenever construction continues, those outdoor dining spaces would be lost to the construction.
“We would be closing the road and not allow outdoor dining except on the northwest corner of [Lake Street and] Euclid Avenue,” McKenna said. “That was already completed with the [District House] development.”
One option McKenna offered was to delay restarting construction in that area until after Labor Day, which allows businesses another month to take advantage of outdoor seating capacity.
“There is mixed input from the businesses, depending on their use,” McKenna said. “Most of the restaurants preferred to at least get to Labor Day and use the rest of summer. Retail establishments didn’t want any delay.”
McKenna said the village could also begin work as initially scheduled in August, or delay the work entirely until early next year. The latter option could add between $100,000 and $200,000 in costs.
Several board members gave consensus for slightly delaying the project, which McKenna said should now start on Sept. 10 and be wrapped up by late November or early December.
“It just seems like that’s a good middle ground because there’s no material change in costs and it gives them an extra month,” trustee Jim Taglia said. “If that’s meaningful for them, I think I would support that.”
While work in the Hemingway District will start in September, streetscape work in downtown Oak Park continues on schedule, McKenna said.
“Right now, a lot of the work is focused in downtown Oak Park from Harlem Avenue to Forest Avenue,” McKenna said. “That work is on schedule. Downtown Oak Park is scheduled to reopen in early August. We weren’t able to speed up construction significantly in that area due to contractor availability. We also didn’t have materials on hand yet.”
Just east of downtown, the work taking place between Forest and Oak Park avenues should be wrapped up by next month.
“We’re way ahead of schedule on that middle stretch,” McKenna said. “We’re looking to wrap that up in early August. We’ll be several months ahead of that middle stretch.”
A water and sewer main project from the Oak Park Library to Ridgeland Avenue is “essentially complete,” McKenna said.
A large street resurfacing project, which replaces the pavement on Lake Street from Euclid Avenue to Austin Boulevard, was to be completed by September, however, it is also nearing an early completion.
“That project was originally intended to take place from June to September, since it’s so close to Oak Park and River Forest High School,” McKenna said. “The resurfacing job, we did start early due to COVID-19 since the schools were not in session. That project has been moving at a quicker rate due to lighter traffic on Lake Street. We’re well ahead of schedule on that.”
Project updates continue to be posted online at www.betterlakestreet.com.
sschering@pioneerlocal.com
Twitter: @steveschering