The Town of Normal Staff is recommending town council approve $3.94 million resolution to award a Main St. (U.S. 51) Water Main Replacement Project to George Gildner Inc. Council is also being asked to approve an associated budget adjustment.
George Gildner Inc. was the low bidder for the project. But their bid is 51% above the engineer’s estimate of $2.61 million. Construction plans were designed by Crawford, Murphy and Tilly (CMT).
CMT did not design for the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) requirement of five feet of cover and estimated the project based on their design with four feet of cover. CMT also did not design for IDOT requirements that the concrete sub-base be doweled and pinned to the existing sub-base.
Normal did not adequately account for traffic impacts in their original budget. To their credit the town is requiring that the mile long project be broken into four sections to minimize traffic concerns. The road must be fully reconstructed before construction on the next section can begin.
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The sections of Main St. where construction will be done are some of the busiest in the city. One section is from W. College Street to W. Beaufort St. and another is from W. Virginia Ave. to E. Division St.
Town staff also decided to add 1100 feet of water line to the project during the design process increasing the cost. That section runs along Kingsley St. and Dry Grove St.
The budget for the project is $2.54 million. Therefore an additional 1.40 million is needed to complete the project as designed.
Staff is asking council to pass a budget adjustment of $1.90 million for the project. Staff is recommending the that amount to be funded by the Main and Osage tax increment financing (TIF) district.
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The TIF funding would be generated over time from Fiscal Year (FY) 2022-23 to FY 2026-27 and would be allocated to the Water Fund to support the project cost. Assuming the idea is the fund would provide the same amount of funding each year that would be $475,000 a year for four years.
If the project is awarded, Gildner would order materials immediately and look for deliveries by fall of 2023. Construction would then start and the project would be completed in 2024.
Under this plan the Water Fund would have to cover an estimated $950,000 when the project is completed in 2024 until it could recoup that funding loss in 2026. Staff says some of that can be covered with unallocated resources from cost savings from other projects.
Normal feels pressure to go ahead with this project as designed because Main St. roadway improvement are scheduled in IDOT’s Five Year Transportation Improvements Plan (TIP). Ideally the water main project would be completed before the roadway project starts.
