Aurora planning nearly $1.9 million renovation of water tower

The city of Aurora is planning a nearly $1.9 million renovation of the water tower near the corner of Church Road and Bilter Road.

The project would mark the second rehabilitation this water tower has seen since it was first built in 1976. A contract with Era-Valdivia Contractors, Inc., for $1.86 million was recommended for approval by a committee of the Aurora City Council on Monday, so now it heads to another committee before coming before the City Council for final approval.

“This is a major infrastructure maintenance project for the water production division,” Aurora Superintendent of Water Production Bob Leible told the City Council Infrastructure and Technology Committee on Monday.

An inspection of the tank in 2020 found that certain work would be needed at around this time, according to Leible. He said 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.”

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, which estimated the cost of construction at about $2.8 million, Leible said on Monday. So, the bid by Era-Valdivia Contractors is “significantly under budget,” he said.

Ald. Keith Larson, at-large, called it “good news.”

But Ald. Ted Mesiacos, 3rd Ward, 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.

“That’s a big swing,” Mesiacos said of the difference between the estimate and the actual bid for construction. “There’s a lot of things that can be put into work with a million dollars.”

While Leible said he was not the engineer that did the cost prediction, he thinks they rely on the costs of similar past projects to make those estimates. The city staff report from last year says that Engineering Enterprises has a “substantial resume of experience in water tank recoating and rehabilitation projects” for the city.

Plus, the highest bid for construction on the project was closer to the estimate at around $2.5 million, according to Leible.

Additional water tank renovation projects are planned to be completed next year, he said, which are for two ground storage tanks located across from the water treatment plant at 1111 Aurora Ave.

rsmith@chicagotribune.com