Aurora is moving forward with a nearly $1.9 million renovation of the water tower near the corner of Church Road and Bilter Road in the city.
A contract with Era-Valdivia Contractors, Inc., for the work was approved by the Aurora City Council on Tuesday after previously being recommended by one of the council’s committees. The project will be the second rehabilitation this water tower has seen since it was first built in 1976.
Aurora Superintendent of Water Production Bob Leible previously called the project a “major infrastructure maintenance project” for his division.
An inspection of the tank in 2020 found that certain work would be needed at around this time. The previous renovation project on this water tank was in 2001, about 25 years after it was put into service — and so after another 25 years, the tank is “hitting that window again,” Leible has said.
Specifically, the 2020 inspection recommended a full recoating and ancillary repairs, according to a city staff report from last year about the engineering contract for this project. The report also notes that the tank, located at 2680 Church Road, is of a welded steel, fluted column tank design and can store up to 1.5 million gallons of water.
Design of this planned renovation project was done by Engineering Enterprises, Inc., of Sugar Grove. That firm estimated the cost of construction at about $2.8 million, Leible previously said, so Era-Valdivia Contractors’ bid was “significantly under budget.”
The $1.86 million contract with Era-Valdivia Contractors for the renovation of the water tower was approved Tuesday as a part of the Aurora City Council meeting’s consent agenda, which is typically reserved for routine or non-controversial items that are all approved with a single vote.
Although he ended up voting in favor of the project, Ald. Ted Mesiacos, 3rd Ward, previously had concerns about the cost estimate being nearly $1 million higher than the lowest bid.
Especially when the city is trying to budget, that kind of difference can skew things, he said during a meeting of the City Council’s Infrastructure and Technology Committee earlier this month.
Leible said at the time that Engineering Enterprises has a “substantial resume of experience in water tank recoating and rehabilitation projects” for the city, and that the highest bid for construction on the project was closer to the estimate at around $2.5 million.
Additional water tank renovation projects are planned to be completed next year, which are for two ground storage tanks located across from the city’s water treatment plant at 1111 Aurora Ave, according to Leible.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
