Yorkville standing by site of new water tower, even as costs are $700K more than expected

It looks like Yorkville is willing to swallow the $700,000 additional costs coming from its new 1.5 million-gallon standpipe water tower on the south side of town.

The city fears possibly delaying the more than $100 million Lake Michigan water sourcing project.

The entire South Receiving Station project was originally slated for almost $7 million.

The 4.03-acre site is located on Illinois Route 126, east of Wing Road and south of Illinois Route 71. The city recently bought the property from Restore Church.

The problem wasn’t the location of the tower, which is optimal for connecting to the water pipelines being constructed for the Lake Michigan Water project, but what lies underneath.

Weak soil is making engineers have to come up with alternative plans to anchor the water tower in place, which has a top capacity line at 850 feet.

The new tower will help ensure the Lake Michigan water is distributed evenly throughout town.

In addition to the water tower, the project involves constructing a receiving station building and a DuPage Water Commission metering building. The DuPage Water Commission is who the city is partnering with to extend water pipes from Naperville out to the towns of Montgomery, Oswego, and Yorkville. Montgomery and Oswego are sharing the project costs with Yorkville.

The project was previously estimated to cost Yorkville a little more than $100 million, but initial bidding for the first leg of the project came in way over expectations, possibly resulting in an additional $100 million more total for the three communities combined.

Engineers are currently devising solutions to bring that additional $100 million down as much as they can, with some success, according to the city.

Yorkville is securing funding for the project through a Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act federal loan, which currently does not cover any additional increases in project costs.

Soil samples from the site of the south side water tower revealed that to secure the tower properly – and ensure it does not topple over – the foundation would need to be dug much deeper than expected into more solid ground.

During the bidding process, only one company, CB&I Storage Solutions, LLC, of Plainfield, agreed to take on the project because of the weak soil. Their bid to reach the extra depths added $700,000 more than expected.

While the city could have taken the time to find a new site, City Engineer Brad Sanderson previously said doing so would make finishing all water infrastructure by 2027 very difficult.

The city is racing to complete all construction by then because the first water from Lake Michigan is scheduled to be streaming down the pipes in the summer of 2028.

The DuPage Water Commission mandates all participating towns hold two times the storage as the city’s average daily water use.

The Yorkville City Council recently approved higher water rates for users to help offset some of the project’s costs. Residents will face 20% increases for at least five years.

A public hearing for the project is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 12 at City Hall. The project site will need to be rezoned away from a business district. The first vote is tentatively booked for the Dec. 9 city council meeting.