The Lake Forest City Council on March 17 unanimously approved a contract not to exceed $1,551,740 with Peter Baker and Son Company to perform the city's 2025 patching and resurfacing program.

City Engineering Superintendent Byron Coutts told the council the city uses a pavement-management system that combines resurfacing, preventive maintenance (crack filling and patching) and reconstruction to "extend that life cycle by doing the right treatment on the right street at the right time." He said the city's consultant collects data with a sensor-equipped van that scans roughly 110 to 120 centerline miles of streets and produces a pavement-condition index for each segment.

Why it matters: resurfacing choices affect how far the city's maintenance dollars stretch and whether streets will require earlier, more expensive reconstruction. Council members pressed staff on timing, materials and coordination with other capital projects.

Coutts said the 2025 resurfacing list covers about 2.6 centerline miles and that the program attempts to avoid repaving streets shortly before planned water or storm-sewer work. He described the typical treatments: resurfacing generally removes the top 3 inches of asphalt, preventive maintenance focuses on crack filling and patching, and reconstruction removes pavement down to the stone base.

"Our philosophy is not too early, not too late," Coutts said. "We want to time it in the sweet spot of when it makes sense to invest those dollars." He added the city receives a pavement-management report approximately every five years and uses that data together with field checks by staff and input from the streets operations team.

Alderman Butler asked whether some streets identified for this year's work in the Mount Vernon area were concrete. Coutts replied some nearby segments are concrete and handled under a separate concrete program, but the Mount Vernon streets on the proposed list are asphalt and, after inspection, "it is time for that street to be resurfaced." He said condition variance and market pricing (notably petroleum prices) and available funding drive year-to-year differences in miles resurfaced.

Coutts also noted the city typically uses Motor Fuel Tax (MFT) funds every third year for a larger resurfacing budget; he pointed to 2023 as an MFT year with roughly a $1.5 million resurfacing budget and said 2026 is projected to be another MFT year.

Motion and vote: Alderman Weber moved and the council seconded awarding the low bid to Peter Baker and Son Company and authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement not to exceed $1,551,740. The council approved the motion by roll call, 8-0.

Next steps: with the contract authorized, the city manager will execute the agreement and the contractor will begin work per the contract schedule and standard city procurement terms.