At its meeting earlier this month, the Lake Zurich Village Board approved spending millions of dollars on a collection of water, sewage and storm water infrastructure work in the Main Street District.
The board had been eyeing the project for years and agreed at the March 6 meeting that the costs cannot exceed $5.1 million. The work is already budgeted and will be funded through the Main Street District’s tax increment financing program which allows a government board to pay for repairs based on future tax revenues.
The village awarded the contract for the work to PirTano Construction.
“The fiscal year 2023 budget includes $6.4 million in the TIF District No. 2 Fund for multi-phase public improvements within Lake Zurich’s Main Street District, advancing the village’s strategic goal of infrastructure investment,” said Trustee Dan Bobroski.
He explained that the first phase of the work consists of replacing approximately 2,500 feet of 8-inch water main, 1,460 feet of 8-inch sanitary sewer, 1,050 feet of storm sewer, and 240 feet sanitary force main on Main Street, Mionke Drive and Lake Street, which includes full pavement resurfacing.
Public Works Director Mike Brown told the board the job should have been done a year ago but the bids came in over budget. But this year, thanks to early bidding, he said, the village secured a lower bid.
“It’s a large, complex project that provides some infrastructure improvements not only for commercial folks but for residential folks as well,” said Brown.
He said the work will probably wrap up in the fall. Brown said the project could yet contain unforeseen expenses, however, especially if it requires cleaning up pollution in the soil, and replacing any lead lines workers discover – and they’ve already discovered a few lead-cased water lines the village will have to replace.
“And if we identify more, we want to be ready for that, as well,” Brown said.
Additionally, he said the roadway along the lake will have to be braced as the replacement work gets underway — an expensive feat of engineering, though necessary.
Mayor Tom Poynton asked for a timeframe. Brown said he expects work to start in April or May, though he emphasized the village will try not to intrude too much on scheduled festivals like Rock the Block on South Rand Road.
He said the whole project should be finished by the end of November.
Trustee Marc Spacone praised the project.
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“It’s long overdue to get this work done,” he said. “We’re going to clean up the mess that happened decades ago to make it safe. It’s a huge benefit for the residents in that area. When people flush their toilet and turn on their faucets, it’ll be clean, a modernized system and that’s a must. It’s a necessity and it’s been years in the making.”
The project will also install over 1,000 feet of 12-inch water main on South Old Rand as well as overhead utilities repair over South Old Rand.
“A competitive bid opening was held on Feb. 22,” said Bobrowski, “resulting in four bidsreceived. The most competitive bid was submitted by PirTano ConstructionCompany of Addison, for a base project amount of $3,882,337.99. The total requested not-to-exceed amount of $5,102,922.49 includes $1,220,584.50 in construction and engineering contingency funds.”
Jesse Wright is a freelancer.