Editor's note: This story was originally published in the Belleville News-Democrat.
It’s been 13 years since the city of Belleville hired a local engineering firm to design a roundabout at the intersection of South Belt East and Freeburg Avenue, near Walnut Hill Cemetery.
The project got delayed for a variety of reasons, including funding shortages, other priorities and changes in Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) requirements. Most recently, the city had a contract dispute with Kaskaskia Engineering Group last winter.
The roundabout seemed to be back on track in August, when officials predicted they would request bids in the fall and start construction this spring. But that never materialized.
“What the city had budgeted and the grant funds that we had lined up don’t cover this new (cost estimate),” City Engineer Scott Saeger said Monday. “We’re looking into some value engineering and options for different ways to design or construct the project to save funds.
“We’re also working with the finance department and the grants department to try and figure out if there’s a way to get some additional funding. So we’re not ready to put it out for bids until we can get the plan finalized.”
Saeger said the city had allocated $1.8 million for the roundabout in the 2023-24 budget, but it would need $3.7 million based on the new estimate. That would be combined with about $1 million in state funds and $800,000 in federal funds for a total cost of $5.5 million.
Kaskaskia updated roundabout plans this fall, taking into account new IDOT requirements and current prices for labor and materials, according to Geri Boyer, the firm’s president.
“Inflation in the construction industry has been substantial,” she said.
Roundabouts limit idling
More and more cities, including some in the Metro East, are replacing traditional four-way stops with roundabouts.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety considers them a safer alternative because tight circles force drivers to slow down, and they lessen the number of right-angle, left-turn and head-on collisions.
Efficiency and the environmental also are factors.
“Research shows that traffic flow improves after traditional intersections are converted to roundabouts,” the institute’s website states. “Less idling reduces vehicle emissions and fuel consumption.”
The four-way stop at South Belt East and Freeburg Avenue is east of Belle-Clair Fairgrounds and west of Walnut Hill Cemetery. Freeburg Avenue also is Illinois 13, making IDOT responsible for oversight.
More than a decade ago, the city received a federal grant through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program to construct a roundabout at that intersection, where traffic tended to back up during rush hour.
“The CMAQ grant is $798,000,” Saeger said.
The city paid Kaskaskia $108,000 to design the roundabout in 2011 and $98,500 to redesign it in 2015 based on IDOT requirements and changes requested by adjacent property owners.
During last year’s contract dispute, City Attorney Garrett Hoerner stated in a letter to Boyer’s attorney that the city had paid Kaskaskia $235,218 of a maximum allowable payment of $236,400. Hoerner was reacting, in part, to an additional invoice from the firm for $55,689.
This diagram from shows what a roundabout would look like if built at the intersection of South Belt East, which runs east and west, and Freeburg Avenue in Belleville, near Belle-Clair Fairgrounds. Kaskaskia Engineering Group
Kaskaskia still on job
One notable development concerning the roundabout is that Kaskaskia is still working on the design, despite legal and political battles between Boyer and the administration of Mayor Patty Gregory.
During the 2021 election campaign, Gregory criticized incumbent Mayor Mark Eckert for what she characterized as too many “no-bid contracts” being awarded for city projects. Eckert and other officials noted that bidding is illegal for professional services.
The Gregory administration, which originally included City Engineer Sal Elkott, created an evaluation process for engineering firms seeking city contracts and determined it would do business with the Top 5. Kaskaskia was ranked sixth. Boyer blamed the blacklisting on “politics” due to her support for Eckert. Gregory rejected that claim.
In January 2023, the City Council followed an administration recommendation to terminate a contract with Kaskaskia on a Forest Avenue road project that hadn’t yet started.
In February 2023, the city filed a lawsuit in St. Clair County Court, asking a judge to force Kaskaskia to turn over electronic plans for the South Belt East roundabout. Boyer had refused, speculating that officials wanted to take the “unethical” step of allowing another firm to complete a project already in progress.
Boyer ultimately provided unalterable PDFs of the roundabout design to the city. She said officials failed to find a replacement firm and asked her to help them out by finishing the job.
“Lots of people stop me, and they say, “There is no way I would have gone back and helped them on this roundabout after everything that happened,’” Boyer said. “But it was the right thing to do. These projects are not about public officials. They’re about the people who live in Belleville.”
Teri Maddox is a reporter with the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio. BND reporter Mike Koziatek contributed to this report.
