The Union County Board of Commissioners discussed awarding the Union Springs Road bridge contract after receiving a low bid of roughly $258,000 and moved to submit the contract to the selected bidder for signature, with final execution pending the signed return of the contract.

The discussion centered on how the project will be paid. A county highway representative said the county currently has about $202,000 unobligated in its Township Bridge Program (TBP) fund and about $70,000 that had been obligated for engineering but not yet paid out. “That's 258,000 and some change,” the highway representative said of the low bid. They added that the county may need about $56,000 from this year’s TBP allotment to cover the difference, but the county expects another TBP allotment of about $300,000 in August.

The highway representative also noted the county previously passed a resolution authorizing short-term borrowing from a federal aid match or insurance account if needed to cover payments until the next TBP allotment arrives. “We passed a resolution allowing us to borrow from our federal aid match account or insurance account to pay that until we get our next TBP allotment in August,” the representative said.

County staff said they have submitted the contract to the selected bidder to sign and will execute it on the county’s end once the signed contract is returned. The representative estimated fabrication and ordering of bridge beams will likely delay the start of physical work for one to two months, saying, “I would say that'll take at least a month. ... it could take as long as 2 months. So, see, June, it's probably gonna start sometime in July or August.” The board did not record a roll-call vote on the contract in the provided transcript excerpt; meeting minutes indicate the contract has been submitted for signature and execution is pending receipt of the signed agreement.

Board members also discussed a separate State of Illinois grant opportunity totaling $400 million for shovel-ready local projects. The highway representative said the county submitted applications for projects in design that could be ready within one to two years. “They were due on June 1,” the representative said, and the county expects to learn if it receives funding sometime in July.

The bridge under discussion will replace an existing wooden structure with a single-span concrete bridge; staff described it as smaller than some multi-span bridges the county manages but larger than small wooden crossings the county sometimes replaces. The board’s next steps in the transcript were to await the returned signed contract and the county’s TBP allotment in August, and to monitor the outcome of the state grant application.