Lake Forest council awards $1.55 million resurfacing contract; engineering staff details pavement management plan

The Lake Forest City Council voted 8-0 on March 17 to award the low bid for the 2025 patching and resurfacing project to Peter Baker and Son Company and authorized the city manager to execute a contract not to exceed $1,551,740.

The vote followed a presentation from Byron Coutts, Superintendent of Engineering, who summarized the city’s pavement-management approach and the recommended list of streets for this year’s resurfacing. Coutts said the 2025 program proposes roughly 2.6 centerline miles of resurfacing and described resurfacing as removal and replacement of the top three inches of asphalt.

Coutts told the council that Lake Forest uses a pavement condition index supplied by an outside consultant and that the consultant’s data-collection van surveys roughly 110–120 centerline miles of city streets. He said the city combines that data with field verification by engineering and street operations staff and cross-references planned resurfacing against other capital projects such as planned water-main or storm-sewer work to avoid duplicative construction.

"We're trying to optimize the timing of treatments — resurfacing, preventive maintenance, patching — to extend the life cycle and avoid reconstruction," Coutts said.

Alderman Barber asked about a specific Mount Vernon-area segment flagged for resurfacing and whether some streets in that area are concrete. Coutts replied that concrete work is handled under a separate concrete program and confirmed that the streets on the Mount Vernon list are asphalt and in need of resurfacing, saying he re-drove those streets the same morning and noted aggregate deterioration.

Coutts explained why the city’s annual lane-mile totals vary: every third year Lake Forest programs state motor fuel tax (MFT) funds, which raises the resurfacing budget and lane-mile count in those years. He cited calendar-year comparisons the consultant provided showing 1.2 miles resurfaced in 2022 and 3.1 miles in 2023, with higher mileage in MFT years.

Council members approved the contract by roll call. The minutes record the roll-call vote as eight yeas, zero nays; individual affirmative votes were recorded in the transcript as Alderman Weber, Alderman Novot, Alderman Clements, Alderman Notes, Alderman Powers, Alderman Gashkarian, Alderman Lavert and one additional alderman listed only as "Alderman" in the recorded roll call.

The resurfacing award is separate from the omnibus consent agenda and will proceed under the city manager's execution of the contract with Peter Baker and Son Company.

The council packet materials shown at the meeting included a five-year map of resurfacing and a table of centerline miles by year; Coutts said the packet will be used to balance resurfacing timing with other capital needs and market pricing fluctuations such as petroleum costs.