Officials in La Grange Park hit a roadblock with the planned Central Area Sewer Separation project after bids from contractors for the project came in much higher than expected.
The Village Board last week unanimously approved rejecting the bids from five different contractors as being in excess of what was recommended by the village engineer, Hancock Engineering.
“Staff proposes that the Village Board formally reject all bids received for the Central Area Sewer Separation project due to the bid results being substantially higher than anticipated,” Trustee Bob Lautner told his colleagues in introducing the measure. “The background on this, in July of 2026, the Village opened bids for the project, staff and Hancock Engineering reviewed the bid results, and determined that the bids are not favorable for the project.”
Lautner said the engineer’s estimate was $3,175,324 for the project.” But the bids that the Village received ranged from $4,383,000 up to $6,190,639.
“These are significantly higher, of course,” said Lautner.
The project is planned to provide stormwater and flooding relief to the area bounded by 31st Street, La Grange Road, Homestead Road, and the IHB railroad tracks.
Currently the area is served by a sewer system that handles both sanitary and stormwater runoff. The system proved unable to handle heavy storms. Particularly damaging were intense storms that hit the area in May of 2020, when the village experienced the greatest property damage and basement back-up ever recorded.
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The project will consist of installing separate storm sewers beginning at the intersection of Homestead Road and Oak Avenue, north to Jackson Avenue, east to Barnsdale Road, north to Garfield Avenue, west to Homestead, north to 26th Street, and north to Salt Creek.
There was also a second portion of the project, focusing on a different area, where the board again unanimously rejected the bids received.
In this section of the project, Hancock gave the village an estimate of $5,599,131, but the bids received ranged from $6,317,800 to $7,050,089.
The village officially solicited bids this week.
While the village signed an intergovernmental agreement last year with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District for a $4 million grant that mandated contracts to be signed October 1, 2026, it’s unknown when the project might actually begin.
After the meeting, Public Works Director Rick Radde said it was difficult to pin down a start date for the project, depending on weather and what the contractor’s operation was like.
“Sometime in early spring, if I had to make my best estimate,” he said.
The next La Grange Park Village Board meeting will be 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 22 in the Village Boardroom, 447 N. Catherine Ave.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.