Roadwork, water system improvements and ash tree replacements are among projects the village of Shorewood will address in 2017.
Road projects include resurfacing on Black Road from River Road to I-55, intersection improvement to River Road at Route 52 and street widening along Wynstone Drive and Route 52.
“Those are the big projects,” said Chris Drey, public works director. “Our local road and (Motor Fuel Tax) projects, we’ll be looking at all the different streets. Right now, the list is going to be based on the budget.”
Drey said village action is necessary for a number of reasons. An important thing is to alleviate the safety concerns for drivers traveling near Wynstone Drive and Route 52 by widening the street to create a designated turn lane and alter the traffic flow, he said.
“The dollars we’re talking about for all these projects, that’s a big investment for the community,” Drey said.
As for water system related projects, village officials are working on the sanitary sewer with inflow and infiltration, a pair of processes in which water enters the collection system.
“That’s going to be pretty much our big focus on the sanitary-sewer side of things,” Drey said.
But that’s not all, Drey said.
“We’re looking at getting Lake Michigan Water from the Illinois American Pipeline that’s in Bolingbrook,” he said. “We need to bring down a pipe all the way down from there to our water tower at Wynstone (Drive). We’ll have to build a pump station at that point.”
Drey, noting that available water in the village’s deep well aquifers is depleting and the Illinois State Water Survey positions Shorewood in an area of concern, said officials are looking at alternative supplies.
“The Illinois State Water Survey has had a concern now for the last several years,” he said. “The last several years municipalities in the area realized that the water levels are depleting. That’s a primary source for a lot of communities around us. So, that prompted us to instead of looking at another deep well, to look at another source of water and see what the cost factor would be.”
Drey said the village is also finishing up ash tree removal in some areas within the village.
“We’ll definitely have them all out by the latest late spring, worst case,” he said.
Shorewood will go out to bid for tree replacement for this year in September. Officials will open those bids by the end of January.
Not all trees will be replaced during the first planting.
Drey said trees were overplanted in the past and officials are looking to review the matter. The more specific timeline for ash tree removal and replacement will be set a later date, at which time village officials will look to inform residents, he said.
In the coming weeks, Shorewood officials will also begin the process of putting together a proposed budget for the village’s fiscal year, which begins in April. The projected cost estimates for these improvements are not yet available.