The Underpass project for East Main Street has funding in place, but the bidding process scheduled to begin today has been delayed.An agreement was expected to be reached between the attorneys of the Illinois Department of Transportation and BNSF on construction and future maintenance today, but details are still being hammered out.
That means the project will have to wait until March 4 to be bid out.
City Engineer Wayne Carl assures WGIL that despite delays, funding is secured and the project is moving forward.
“I’ve talked to the deputy director over in our region for IDOT and he assured me that’s the case. The funding’s in place we’re just waiting on this agreement to signed by both parties and then we can move forward with the letting of the project.”
Carl says that IDOT and BNSF are taking longer than expected to finalize agreements on construction liability for the contractors and post-construction maintenance.
Once bids go out in March the city expects work to start in May 2016 and be completed by June 2018.
“We have everything completed, all the bid documents are prepared and down in Springfield ready for letting,” Carl says.
Carl has said from the beginning that this project would be more complicated than the Don Moffitt Overpass and Bickerdyke Bridge.
