Lee County updates highway building plan; utility access and $8 million grant bid discussed

Lee County staff reported progress on a planned highway building: borings are complete, the site is staked, and site and structural engineering work is underway. The board said roughly $400,000 has been set aside to begin work, with additional engineering and construction costs to follow.

"We've got the borings done and the location was staked out to where we wanna put the proposed building," a county highway representative said, and staff said they are exhausting available resources to keep costs down.

County staff also described a federal funding strategy: the county is preparing an application to the U.S. Department of Transportation BUILD (or similar) grant, with a target request close to $8,000,000 and a Feb. 24 application deadline. Officials said awards are expected to be announced in June this year rather than the usual October schedule.

A significant constraint is utility service: the project site is not within NICOR's existing natural-gas service area and may require NICOR to pursue an Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) process to extend service, a step that county staff said could take up to two years unless expedited. To mitigate, the proposed building is being designed for dual fuel so propane can be used temporarily if gas is not available during initial operations.

Board members asked staff to explore options, including contacting state representatives to try to accelerate the utility process. No final construction contract or funding award was in place at the time of the meeting.