The severe cold weather that pummeled the Chicago area in January will force this city to spend more than $100,000 for repairs to frozen water lines.
On Tuesday, the City Council will be asked to authorize payments totaling $101,557.57 to four local contractors who took over from the city’s Water Department when its workload became unmanageable.
Public Works Director Dennis Duffield admitted as much recently when he told councilmen that “this has been the hardest freeze we’ve had in the city since 1977.”
The contractors were asked to make waterline repairs at 36 different sites in Joliet over a three-week period in late January and early February. Most of those repairs consisted of digging down to the line, lowering it below the frost line and backfilling the roadway.
Additional restoration of either the roadway or landscaping will be needed at those sites, and at another 19 sites, frozen pipes were thawed without any digging.
City officials say they will look at those 19 locations to see if the pipes need to be lowered.
Five of the 36 sites were in new subdivisions and the cost of repairs-$13,322.89-will be billed to developers.
In a memo to the council, City Manager John Mezera said that an “abnormal workload” of repairing water mains kept the Water Distribution Department from making the necessary repairs.
The council has been asked to authorize payments of $40,163.10 to P.T. Ferro Construction Co.; $21,697.12 to Construction by Camco; $20,564.60 to J. S. Alberico Construction Co. and $19,132.75 to Russ & Company.