Visitors to the Park Ridge Public Library and Uptown businesses will need to find other places to park through at least the end of the year as reconstruction of the city’s Central Parking Lot begins.
The lot, located next to the library at Prospect and Summit Avenues, as well as across the street from the Park Ridge train station, is slated to close Sept. 29 as work begins to build a water-permeable parking lot on the site, said Park Ridge City Engineer Sarah Mitchell.
No part of the city-owned parking lot, which includes spaces reserved for commuters and library employees, will be open during the project, which is targeted for “substantial” completion by mid-December if the weather cooperates, Mitchell said.
“Some items like landscaping and striping will occur in the spring,” she said.
Street parking and parking in the city’s Summit Parking Lot east of Prospect Avenue will be options for visitors during the construction. Parking spaces on Main Street between Prospect and Fairview Avenues may not be available until Nov. 1 due to outdoor dining allowances that were approved for the street earlier this year.
One hundred parking spaces in the AT&T lot, located at the northwest corner of Prairie and Garden Avenues, have also been made available, the city announced.
Jennifer Healy, spokeswoman for the Park Ridge Public Library, said the library’s drive-up drop-off boxes, located in the parking lot, will be moved to the Touhy Triangle parking lot at Touhy and Summit Avenues.
More than two years after the concept was first presented, the Park Ridge City Council on Sept. 20 formally approved a construction contract for the work, totaling $1.26 million.
The bid, from Copenhaver Construction, was the lowest of the four that the city received for the project, aldermen were told.
A grant from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s Green Infrastructure Program will fund half of the project.
Design work cost the city an additional $120,835, according to Mitchell.
The project will consist of replacing the existing asphalt surface with permeable brick pavers and stormwater management components that allow water to drain under the pavers and be released slowly into the city’s sewer system through a perforated drain pipe, Mitchell said.
During a discussion on Sept. 13, 6th Ward Ald. Rick Biagi expressed concerns that the project could exceed the bid cost based on his experience of the construction of a new parking lot at Centennial Park when he served on the Park Ridge Park District Board. Biagi said that soil testing did not uncover problems with the soil until construction started and this resulted in unforeseen, increased costs to the park district.
“How confident are you this project is going to come in at $1.26 million?” Biagi asked.
Mitchell said 10-foot-deep soil borings were performed and while some areas may end up requiring stone because the soil is not suitable, she was “confident” the correct depth had been tested.
Biagi stated that the parking lot does not need to be completed at this time.
“This parking lot is not needed right now,” he said. “This is a ‘nice to have,’ not a must-have.”
Debate over whether the so-called “green” parking lot should be constructed dates back to 2019 when it was learned that the city was a recipient of the MWRD grant.
The council at the time was divided, with concerns about the cost and the loss of several parking spaces that would result.
At the time, Public Works Director Wayne Zingsheim said that while the cost of building a parking lot with pavers is more expensive than an asphalt lot, the life span could be up to 50 years, compared to 15 to 20 years for asphalt.
Earlier this year, the council discussed waiting until 2022 to begin construction of the parking lot. Mitchell said the project was moved up because MWRD “could not commit” to funding its portion next year.
“If we didn’t do it now, we would risk losing the grant if they did not approve it in their budget, which begins Jan. 1,” she said.
