 As we close out 2019 we'd like to wish you all the best during the holiday season. The Lake County Council of Mayors had another very busy and successful year. As we look forward to 2020 with important projects on the horizon, we'd like to thank everyone for all of their continued participation in our Council. The Council is most successful when all the member communities work together.
Save the Date:
The first LCCOM meeting of 2020 is the Transportation Committee scheduled for January 23rd, at 9 am at the Lake County Division of Transportation. The full schedule of 2020 meetings can be found here.
Happy Holidays and we look forward to working with all of you in 2020,
Emily Karry and Mike KIemens
Council Liaisons
 News and Information
LCCOM Call for Projects Opens January 30th
The Lake County Council of Mayors will issue a call for projects to seek applications for projects in Lake County seeking federal Surface Transportation Program (STP) funding. The Call for Projects will open on January 30th and close with all applications being due by 5pm on March 30th.
Project applications and materials will be available on the LCCOM website beginning January 30th.
IDOT Circular Letter on Local Rail-Highway Grade Crossing Safety Program (Section 130 Funds)- Applications Due January 30th
IDOT has released a Circular Letter to provide information on the Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Local Rail-Highway Grade Crossing Safety Program. IDOT is now accepting applications for the Fiscal Year 2021 and 2022 Program. Click here to view the Circular Letter.
ICC Grade Crossing Protection Fund Project Applications – Due January 15, 2020
The Illinois Commerce Commission’s (ICC) Transportation Bureau will accept Grade Crossing Protection Fund (GCPF) project applications until January 15, 2020. Project applications submitted by that date will be considered for the FY 2021- FY 2025 Crossing Safety Improvement Program 5-Year Plan.
“Each year the ICC prioritizes safety improvement projects at public highway-rail crossings on the local roads system and authorizes the use of GCPF funds to help counties, townships and municipalities in paying for eligible safety improvements at highway-railroad crossings on local roads and streets,” said ICC Rail Safety Program Administrator Brian Vercruysse. “Now is the time for local jurisdictions to submit an application to have important projects in their communities be considered for the 5-Year Plan.”
Since Fiscal Year 2010, each month $3.25 million in state motor fuel tax receipts are transferred from the Motor Fuel Tax (MFT) Fund to the Grade Crossing Protection Fund. This amount provides the GCPF with around $39 million annually to be used for safety improvements at highway-rail crossings on local roads and streets. GCPF funds cannot be used for safety improvements at highway-rail crossings on the state road or highway system.
Click here for more information and application materials.
IDOT Circular Letter-Bridge Preservation Guide
The Bureau of Bridges and Structures is pleased to announce the release of the first Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) Bridge Preservation Guide. This guide provides goals, measures, and strategies for the preservation of bridges within the State of Illinois, and contains criteria used to identify condition based and non-condition based cyclical preservation, maintenance, and improvement work actions for bridges. These actions maximize system-wide life expectancy and performance of bridges.
Click here for more information and to see the full circular letter.
Implementing Safe Work Zone Operations Strategies Training Course
The Illinois Technology Transfer Center is offering a free one day course that will provide personnel responsible for planning the operations of their workers in flagged, mobile, short duration, short term and incident response operations, tools and strategies to reduce the probability and severity of an incident. The course was developed to impact a wide variety of organizations with responsibilities for personnel in temporary traffic control zones. Specific types of organizations that would benefit include: Local, State and Tribal Governments; Contractors, Consultants and Utilities; Associations, Insurers and Trainers
Click here for more information on this free training course.
Illinois Technology Transfer Center – 2020 Offerings
The list of 2020 courses available through the Illinois Technology Transfer Center has been published and can be viewed here . The Spring Training Program will be released in early 2020 with dates and locations.
IDOT - PESA Response/PSI Work Order Form
A revised version of the BDE 2735 - PESA Response/PSI Work Order Form is now available. While similar to the last version, it has improvements related to the Section 669 revisions that are effective 1/1/20. Click here for the updated form. Moving forward, this form should be used for all PESA response/PSI Work Order requests.
Please note that if a PESA response is currently being prepared or has already been prepared using the old BDE 2735 (rev. 10/23/18), it is unnecessary to transfer information to the new form. D1-ESU will continue accepting the old form through January 2020.
IDOT - Project Program Information (PPI) Form
IDOT District 1 has updated their PPI Form. The current version of the form can be found on the IDOT website under District 1 forms. Click here for the updated form.
Federal Highway Funding Cut Averted
In late November, Congress passed and the President signed into law a bill that cancels an impending cut of $7.6 billion in federal highway funds. If the previously scheduled rescission had gone into effect, Illinois would have been subject to a $452 million cut on July 1, 2020, across a number of important programs for road, bridge, bicycle/pedestrian, planning, and research projects.
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