DeLaurent Construction Wins $86,648 Litchfield Milling and Resurfacing Bid

Article Summary: The Litchfield City Council on Thursday, July 2, 2026, awarded an $86,648 milling and resurfacing contract for East Prairie and Illini Court to DeLaurent Construction, the lowest of three bidders, moving the work up a year after a failed oil-and-chip treatment.

East Prairie and Illini Court Key Points:

• DeLaurent Construction of Wilsonville bid $86,648 on approximately 4,805 square yards, undercutting two competitors by more than $15,000.
• Rooters Asphalt bid $102,000 and Stutz Excavating bid $138,050 on the same RFP.
• The streets were oil-and-chipped last year in a treatment officials acknowledged did not go well.
• Capital sales tax funds will pay for the work.

LITCHFIELD — The Litchfield City Council on Thursday, July 2, 2026, awarded a bid for the milling and resurfacing of East Prairie and Illini Court to DeLaurent Construction in an amount not to exceed $86,648, accelerating a paving job by a year rather than paying twice for the same stretch of road.

Gerl made the motion, which passed on a roll-call vote with no members opposed. According to the packet, capital sales tax funds are available, and the city administrator, street superintendent and alderman liaison recommended the award.

The city opened bids on RFP 26.08 at 2 p.m. June 22, 2026. Three firms responded on approximately 4,805 square yards of work: Stutz Excavating Inc. of Alton at $138,050, Rooters Asphalt of Beckemeyer at $102,000, and DeLaurent Construction of Wilsonville at $86,648. DeLaurent was the low bidder.

Why These Streets

Hughes asked the administration to explain the selection to the public, noting that streets elsewhere in town are in worse shape and asking whether the city works from a rotation.

Vazquez said the answer traces back to last summer. The subdivision was originally asphalted, she said, and these were among the roads treated with oil and chip last year — a program that, in her words, “did not go as well as we would have liked.”

The city committed to redoing every street that received that treatment. East Prairie and Illini Court were already scheduled to be asphalted next year, she said, which made a second oil-and-chip application this year pointless.

“We’d be kind of wasting money to oil and chip it again this year and then tear all of that up and asphalt it next year,” Vazquez said. “So we just pushed that up one year to use our funding wisely.”

The remaining streets treated with oil and chip last year are still due for a redo. Vazquez told the council earlier in the meeting that the city worked with HMG Engineers to identify a compatible oil and rock combination, and that all of those streets will be redone in late summer — typically mid to late August, weather depending.