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Aurora advances Church Road water tower rehabilitation after low construction bids
Summary
The Infrastructure Committee approved a $1.86 million contract for the Church Road elevated water tank rehab, a project the city said is now prioritized in the CIP after inspection indicated it was due for work; aldermen asked staff to have the engineer of record explain bid-to-budget variance.
The Aurora Infrastructure Committee on Feb. 9 approved a contract to rehabilitate the 50-year-old Church Road elevated water storage tank, awarding the construction contract to the low bidder at $1,861,150.
Bob Lively, superintendent of the Water Production Division, told the committee the tank — project I-054 in the CIP — was previously inspected in 2020 and placed among the top priorities for maintenance. Lively said the low bidder came in about 11% below the second-lowest bid and substantially under the budgeted construction amount of $2.8 million.
Aldermen questioned the size of the variance between the engineer's estimate and the low bid. Committee members asked that the professional engineer of record (EEI, identified in the discussion) appear for a future committee meeting to explain assumptions and projections that informed the engineer's estimate and to help the committee understand what variables may have affected bidding outcomes.
Lively said the lower-than-expected bids will help offset other repair projects in the water and sewer fund and that the city plans to retain the engineer for construction administration. The committee approved the contract by voice vote, recorded as 4-0.
Next steps: staff will coordinate with the engineer of record to provide additional documentation on the bid estimate versus actual bids and return with construction timing and oversight details.
