Board Approves $247,564 Engineering Deal for Walshville Bypass

Article Summary: The Montgomery County Board voted unanimously Tuesday to approve an engineering services agreement with WHKS of Springfield worth up to $247,564 to complete preliminary and design engineering for the Walshville Bypass, a project engineers said would replace six substandard 10-mph curves with a new alignment carrying two 40-mph curves.

Walshville Bypass Key Points:

The agreement covers Phase I preliminary engineering and Phase II design engineering, not to exceed $247,564, to be paid from the Federal Aid Matching Fund.

County Engineer Cody Greenwood said Phase I engineering is nearly complete.

WHKS engineer Rick Allender said the project will eliminate six substandard 10-mph curves and route traffic east and south of Walshville on two 40-mph curves.

The minutes state no total project cost and no construction start date.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY — The Montgomery County Board on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, voted 14-0 to approve a Local Public Agency Engineering Services Agreement with WHKS of Springfield for up to $247,564 to advance the Walshville Bypass, the county highway department’s largest active road design project.

The agreement covers completion of Phase I preliminary engineering and Phase II design engineering for Section 20-00144-00-FP, listed in county records as the Walshville Tr. Road Improvement. The motion, by Roads & Bridges Committee Chairman Ethan Murzynski and seconded by Patty Whitworth, specified that the money would be paid from the Federal Aid Matching Fund. A copy of the agreement was filed in Resolution Book 24, pages 18-26.

County Engineer Cody Greenwood told the board that Phase I of the project engineering is nearly complete, and introduced Rick Allender and Cory Chamberlain of WHKS.

Allender said the project will eliminate six substandard 10-mph curves and replace them with a bypass to the east and south of Walshville carrying two 40-mph curves.

Fund Has Been Largely Untouched This Year

The Federal Aid Matching Fund the board tapped for the agreement is one of several dedicated county highway funds supported by property taxes, the personal property replacement tax and interest earnings. Treasurer’s records for May, presented to the board with Tuesday’s materials, show the fund held $1,713,587.34 in cash as of May 31, 2026.

Those same records show the fund has spent comparatively little in the current fiscal year. Against a $1,050,000 expense budget, $31,004 had been spent through May — including $4,986 on preliminary engineering and $3,225 on construction engineering. The fund’s $300,000 construction line and $300,000 bridge construction line showed no spending at all. On the revenue side, the fund had taken in $37,879 of a budgeted $414,579.

The board’s action Tuesday commits an amount roughly eight times the fund’s year-to-date spending to a single agreement.

What the Record Does Not Say

The minutes do not state a total estimated cost for the bypass, a construction letting date or a construction start date, and they do not record any discussion of right-of-way acquisition or land purchases. They also contain no crash history for the existing curves, the safety rationale Allender’s description implies.

Nor do the minutes describe how the project’s engineering costs will be shared with any state or federal program, beyond naming the fund from which the county will pay.

The Walshville Bypass was the second Walshville-area item the board handled Tuesday. Members also adopted a resolution appropriating County Aid to Bridge funds for an $18,000 shared-cost culvert replacement on North 1st Avenue in Walshville Township, covered separately in this package.

Readers should note that the board’s motion identified the Federal Aid Matching Fund as the source for the $247,564. Whether that designation matches the funding boxes on the underlying Illinois Department of Transportation agreement form is a question this newsroom has flagged for confirmation with the county engineer’s office.