Madison Street’s furnishings, landscaping, painting, pavement and sealcoating will soon be redone after the village selects contractors.
The Village Council of Forest Park approved authorizing the advertising of separate bids to improve several aspects of Madison Street at a meeting May 28. The council had advertised these bids as a package deal, but recently made the move to offer them as individual bids.
Three commissioners and Mayor Rory Hoskins approved advertising the separate bids. Commissioner Maria Maxham was absent from the council meeting.
“The one bid that came back was, by far and wide, much higher than our engineers estimate,” said Jessica Voogd, commissioner of public property. “And we still want to make the improvements along Madison, and so we’re bidding them out separately in the hopes of getting more appropriate response bids.”
“The bids were way over what was estimated,” Hoskins clarified. “So, then we formally rejected the bids. And we’ve broken them out in hopes of getting more right-sized bids.”
Updated furnishings on Madison Street will include new bike racks, trash cans, benches, a sign for community events, and a gateway sign welcoming people to Forest Park. Landscaping updates include replacing the grates around trees with porous rubber surfaces, plus pruning tree roots. Contractors will paint light poles and bollards lining Madison Street, plus sealcoat village-owned parking lots and stripe parking stalls. Finally, pavement services will include restriping all thermoplastic pavement markings, like crosswalks and road lines that divide lanes.
Ryan Nero, commissioner of public health and safety, said, while he understands why the council approved advertising for the bids separately, it might not be the most effective to contract for those parts of the project individually.
“All of them probably would scare off a contractor because maybe some of them aren’t within their wheelhouse to bid it as one package,” Nero said. But some of the items, like sealcoating and pavement, could be grouped together, he said.
“They’d be willing to jump all over that because there’s mobilization costs,” Nero said of contractors. “And to do that three or four different times would elevate the cost for a different contractor to come in and out.”
After bids have been accepted, the village will start work on Madison Street. Construction will be complete by the end of July.
“We remain committed to rejuvenating Madison Street and are exploring all avenues to achieve this goal,” said Village Administrator Rachell Entler in an email.