City approves IDOT funding agreement for Lake Woodbine bridge project with $1.21M local match

The Lake Forest City Council voted 8-0 on Aug. 4 to approve a joint funding agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation to move the Lake Woodbine Bridge project toward the state letting schedule. Public Works staff said the project has $3.68 million in construction grants and an estimated local match of $1,212,952. "The city's costs are gonna be based off of the actual bid price that we get in September," Engineering staff said during the presentation. The project was described as being submitted for the September IDOT letting;, if successful, work would begin in January. Byron Kuntz, presenting the item for the public works committee, said the council had previously directed staff to pursue the spandrel arch bridge option and that executing funding agreements is an IDOT prerequisite for letting. Kuntz said the city will calculate the final local share based on the awarded bid minus grant amounts. The vote was a roll-call motion with the following members recorded as voting "Aye": Aldermen Lavert, Bothefeld, Weber, Walther, Novick, Clemens, Knowles and Powers. The motion carried 8–0. No public comments were recorded for the item during the meeting. Staff said the anticipated project start would be in mid-January pending successful bidding and that additional outreach to the community would precede construction.