St. Charles County details $126 million in road, bridge and stormwater projects; director outlines staffing and grant strategy

John Lyons, county director of public works, told the St. Charles County Council during its Oct. 27 meeting that his department is overseeing $126 million in active and planned road and bridge projects and currently has roughly $27 million in grant funding for those efforts.

"We maintain $1,350,000,000 in existing infrastructure," Lyons said, listing roads, sewers, bridges and a $30 million fleet his department operates. He described workforce levels — 117 employees with eight vacancies — and said the county is moving from 22 vacancies in 2022 to its lowest level in six years.

Lyons highlighted a mix of completed and upcoming work. Projects cited as recently completed or near completion include Dwell Road Phase 3A and two bridge projects (Augusta Bottom Road and Osage Creek Road). Design-only projects slated for next year carry about $2.2 million in design costs and are expected to culminate in a roughly $32.6 million investment when constructed, he said.

The department is setting aside $500,000 to hire professional services to produce an ADA transition plan that Lyons said will inventory pedestrian facilities, identify those not meeting access guidelines and prioritize construction projects. "We will prepare a report which will have all of our... priorities laid out," he said.

Lyons also provided program-level figures: 2025 overlays cover 90 streets (35 miles) at an estimated $6 million; 2026 overlays are planned for about 100 streets (33 miles) with a rough estimate of $6.3 million. Concrete-slab replacements this year included 7,100 slabs at a $10.5 million investment; next year the department plans to replace about 6,400 slabs at an $8.8 million cost.

On stormwater, Lyons said the county inspected approximately 650,000 lineal feet of county-owned storm sewer using ARPA funds and lined 43,500 lineal feet of sewer over the last two years at a combined cost near $6.5 million. He described four watershed studies funded with ARPA and county funds that are expected to wrap up in early 2026 and produce cost estimates and preliminary plans for future construction.

Lyons emphasized grant success and in‑house capacity: "A lot of stormwater came from ARPA," he said, and engineers in his shop prepare many grant applications. He also noted operational readiness for winter: the county expects 50 plow trucks available and salt domes currently holding about 17,400 tons.

Council members pressed Lyons on specifics — including how a Josephville Road realignment affects access for two longtime businesses and whether bridge projects will alter rural road character. Lyons responded that safety standards and deficiency ratings drive bridge replacements and that some driveway access changes are unavoidable because of sight‑distance and safety constraints.

Lyons summarized that the public-works program will continue to rely heavily on grant funding — "we have over $27,000,000 in grant funds paying for [projects]," — while balancing in-house work and contracted services.

The county director's full list of projects, grant amounts, staffing numbers and planned expenditures will be considered by the council as part of next year’s budgeting and project-authorization work.