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Danville City Engineer Sam Cole talks about street projects in his office at the city’s public works facility on Voorhees Street recently.

Danville City Engineer Sam Cole talks about street projects in his office at the city’s public works facility on Voorhees Street recently.

DANVILLE — In the next 30 to 60 days, drivers in the city can expect to see several construction projects starting that will impact travel, including the Jackson and Voorhees intersection realignment.

Those who regularly travel through that busy intersection have already seen some trees marked for the work to soon start.

City Engineer Sam Cole said there’s not a good time of year to do that project, which will take a few months, without impacting school buses and other traffic.

That’s just one of the projects the city will undertake this year.

Cole is estimating the city will touch around 21 percent of roads this year with projects.

“That’s pretty remarkable,” he said, adding that annual maintenance work such as crack sealing pavements, oil and chip work, cape seal (the city’s not done for several years; it’s oil and chip followed by microsurfacing), mill and overlay and other work, such as concrete patching, will be included.

He warned drivers to beware.

Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. said if city officials hear complaints about streets this year, hopefully it’s more about it taking too long to go around projects and not that the city’s not fixing the streets.

Cole said over the last couple years, they’ve tried to get a better handle on their strategy in fixing streets. They’re not repaving 21 percent of the city’s roads this year, but addressing needed maintenance.

Roadway reconstruction projects include Jackson and Voorhees, Denmark Road, Madison and other streets around the Carle at the Riverfront project.

Weather can be a struggle, but Cole said he thinks they can make their target this year.

The Northwest Sanitary Sewer project, a Stark Excavating project, is pretty much complete. They are on final punch list items, such as grass seeding and other items.

“We’re very close to completion on that project,” Cole said. The roadway project has kicked back off. They are doing some work around the box culvert, where the boats go under the causeway. A lot of work is being done by Old Ottawa. It could be mid-summer when that’s wrapping up. The roadway should be open to traffic for the remainder of construction. The curve is being made longer, and not as sharp, on Old Ottawa Road. Pedestrian pieces in the Denmark Road to Winter Avenue area should be connected and completed for use by this summer.

For the Jackson and Voorhees intersection, trees are marked for removal. They have been waiting on materials. Voorhees Street will be staged for construction, but the Jackson Street legs will likely be completely closed, Cole said.

The project could take three to four months or longer to complete, he said. The intersection’s offset street legs will be realigned for better maneuverability for drivers and pedestrians.

Other projects include around the Carle at the Riverfront construction.

Carle has redone the intersection of Madison and Gilbert streets already and Madison, Chandler and Logan.

“We’re basically going to be doing work in between there,” Cole said.

Bids have been awarded and work should start within about 30 to 60 days. That work will take place this year.

Plans are nearly completed for Lafayette Street (the block by the Vermilion County Museum between Gilbert and Robinson streets), Robinson Street (from Lafayette to North streets) and North Street (from Gilbert just short of Logan).

“We’re trying to get all that out to bid, and we want to have it constructed prior to Carle opening up (in early 2023). That’s our goal,” Cole said. “And I think we’ll be all right there getting that done.”

The city council should act on a bid in May or June, with construction starting in late summer to fall.

This will involve new curb and gutter, new sidewalks, repaving the roads and putting in updated streetlights.

“We’re trying to get everything we can underground,” Cole said about utilities, and working with Ameren to do that. There are certain elements city officials are not sure they can get underground. That’s one of the hang-ups on the project. Ameren has been waiting on pricing from its suppliers.

Cole said since the portion of Logan Avenue has been closed and traffic has been rerouted to Gilbert Street with the Carle project, he’s not heard any negatives.

“I think we’ve seen people already adapt a little bit. There will be more traffic, right, when Carle opens, but the condition of the roads and things is only going to get better with these ongoing improvements, so I think we’re going to be OK,” Cole said.

City officials are in talks and looking at costs with possibly moving the Trillium sign at Gilbert and Madison streets, that is causing some traffic sight issues with that new traffic-signaled intersection.

Cole said the West Williams Street planned curve, instead of sharp turns, is moving ahead slowly. The land acquisition process is the slow process, with the city still in negotiations with one entity.

In the other direction, East Williams Street, from Bowman Avenue to State Street, is in pretty rough shape, Cole said of the section stopping short of the Danville Area Community College area. The city will do concrete patching and asphalt overlay, and curb and ramp replacements.

Williams Street, beyond State Street where the city will be stopping, would go away as part of the city’s East Main Street Corridor Plan, and National Avenue wouldn’t be a street where Koehn Creek flows under.

“We’re still working toward that... and nothing that we’re doing would end up coming back out,” Cole said. “The limits work out pretty well there.”

Aldermen approved a design contract for the East Williams Street project. Cole said plans are to open construction bids by June 2023, and it’s planned to be built in 2023 or 2024.

Section Street, east of Danville High School between the Fairchild Overpass and the high school, is a construction project for this year.

The city council approved a Cross Construction contract for work to be completed from East Fairchild to East Williams streets. It’s primarily a mill and overlay project. City crews are doing some patching and a little bit of curb work.

Another project city officials are working on is a West Side Trailways Plan. A draft is being finalized for the riverfront area.

“That’s a pretty neat plan. I’m very excited about that,” Cole said.

It includes a Kickapoo Rail Trail connection. City officials talked with railroad representatives last week to chart a path forward. They’ve not officially abandoned the railroad track section near the city.

“They’ve been good to work with. It takes time,” Cole said.

Plans also are continuing for Garfield Park and pool improvements. The project could go out to bid this winter. Lead times on equipment have gotten terrible, Cole said. For just the gutter system, they’ve seen a 500 percent increase in prices since the original price estimates, Cole said.

As a whole for the public works department, Cole said they’re working on 50-75 projects at a time, in various design to construction phases. They’re working on pump station upgrades in several locations. Bids are being reviewed on sewer and manhole lining projects in the Jackson and Voorhees area and north of that.

The city also is having roughly 20 percent of sanitary sewers being cleaned, televised and smoke tested and looking for defects.

“That’s over 35 miles of sewers in our sanitary sewer system. That’s the first time that the city, that I’m aware of, has taken that active of an approach. We don’t expect every year to be that big. But this is going to get us a jump, you know on things, with the new sewer rates going into effect. We want to make sure we’re putting those dollars to work as effectively as possible,” Cole said.

Other projects include, Columbia Street, one block between Vermilion and Walnut streets, will be rebuilt; and Beard Street, one block south of Main and east of Bowman, will be reconstructed.

There are seven project bid openings on April 21.

“That’s a lot of road projects,” Cole said, about the maintenance and other projects coming up.

Funding is coming from various sources, such as motor fuel tax funds, local infrastructure (gas and sales tax), Rebuild Illinois allotments and other sources.

“A lot of it is kind of catching up on these deferred maintenance items with the funds that are there,” Cole said.

Unless the city receives outside funding, it won’t be able to keep this pace up.

“We need to keep this pace up and more, honestly, from an infrastructure replacement standpoint,” he said. “I’m not sure how to get us there yet. That’s something that we’re going to be working on.”

Everything still points to the Danville Area Transportation Study group, the local transportation planning organization, going away due to Vermilion County population losses.

DATS will likely continue through the end of June 2023, Cole said.

The loss of the metropolitan group will mean the loss of $250,000 a year in transportation planning dollars, and other funding for Danville Mass Transit and the city.

DMT won’t receive an urbanized area funding allotment anymore and Danville’s allotted construction dollars will be a reduced amount, based on 30,000 people instead of the area’s 50,000 people.

“In all over a 10-year period, it’s probably in the $10 to $15 million dollars ballpark ...,” Cole said about the hit. “It affects a lot of funding.”

City officials also hope to hear in the next month or so about a Main Street downtown grant for pedestrian, side road and lighting improvements.

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