Sycamore rehires engineering firm for 2025 water main improvements

SYCAMORE – The city of Sycamore has hired an engineering firm to prepare the final plans necessary for 2025 water main improvement projects.

The city’s 2025 water main improvement project – which has an estimated cost of $5.7 million – will be the largest water main project since Sycamore Public Works officials proposed a handful of water main improvement projects in 2020, according to city documents.

City Manager Michael Hall said Sycamore has completed about $5 million worth of water main improvements over the past two years.

“Now we’re preparing final engineering documents, and complete bidding for the 2025 project, which is a very large project – looking at $5.7 million to upsize, replace water mains on Park Avenue, Chauncey Street, Locust Street, Lincoln Street and Main Street,” Hall said. “The plan is to replace 7,000 linear feet of water main and known private lead service service lines along those routes.”

[ Sycamore has half a year left with state grants to replace lead service lines ]

On Jan. 16, the Sycamore City Council unanimously approved a $248,000 contract with Trotter and Associates Inc. to complete engineering documents and project bigs for the 2025 water main improvements.

At the same meeting, the Sycamore City Council approved a separate resolution with the company for the completion of the city’s 2024 water master plan update.

It’s not the first time the St. Charles-based engineering firm has been hired by Sycamore to work on water infrastructure.

In 2019, Sycamore hired Trotter and Associates Inc. to complete a water master plan – a prerequisite for the millions of dollars of loans the city has received from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. The agency’s loans have paid for the city to undergo infrastructure improvements since 2020, including water main work, replacement of water service lines that are lined with lead and other endeavors.

In a Jan. 4 letter from City Engineer Mark Bushnell to Hall, Bushnell wrote that the size of the project required the city to outsource the project.

“Due to the size and manpower required to complete the design it is necessary to retain the services of a consulting engineer,” wrote Bushnell, who was employed at Trotter and Associates for 12 years before being hired as Sycamore’s city engineer.