An Aurora City Council committee Tuesday recommended three agreements that will help get a new intersection at Duke Parkway and Route 59 built by August.
The intersection, as well as the extension of Duke Parkway to get to Route 59, is part of the infrastructure needed for Amazon to build two distribution centers in the northeast corner of the Duke Realty business park that would run from Route 59 to Ferry Road.
Amazon announced last December it would build a nearly 1-million-square-foot facility in Aurora where employees will pick, pack and ship small items to customers such as books, electronics and consumer goods. It also would build a second facility of about 400,000 square feet that would specialize in handling larger items like big-screen televisions.
As part of the developments, Duke Realty must extend Duke Parkway and create the intersection with Route 59, a state highway. Aurora already agreed to a property tax rebate to go toward construction of the intersection. The agreements considered by Finance Committee members Tuesday would sort out who pays what for the intersection, and who will have jurisdiction of the intersection when it’s finished.
The intersection is estimated to cost $4.72 million, although the exact cost is not known yet because the project has not been bid. Aurora has received an Economic Development Program grant of $2 million to go toward the construction cost, and the rest of it would be paid by Duke. One of the agreements recommended Tuesday allows for the city of Aurora to bid the project, but for Duke to put money into an escrow fund for the city to draw down on to pay for the construction.
Another agreement is with the state to allow the city to use HR Green, of Yorkville, as the engineer during construction.
The third agreement is an intergovernmental one between Aurora and Warrenville to spell out who will have jurisdiction over the intersection. Warrenville will answer police and ambulance calls there, although Aurora will have control over the pavement. Warrenville will have control over sidewalks and a multi-use trail on one side of the intersection.
Warrenville also has to close off another access from Route 59 into a nearby subdivision and create a new access for emergency services into that subdivision.
Officials are pressing to get the intersection finished by August to meet Amazon’s timetable to get the distribution centers built.
