Peoria Heights moves forward on major water projects: filtration bid and raw-water main design

The Peoria Heights Village Board on Tuesday advanced two substantial water-infrastructure efforts: it accepted a staff recommendation naming Linder Construction as the apparent low bidder for a manganese filtration-plant addition and approved a design-and-construction-services proposal to replace a raw water main from Route 29 to the water treatment plant.

Trustee Simmons presented bids opened May 26 for the manganese filtration project. Engineering reviewers from Woodard & Curran identified Linder Construction, Inc. as the apparent low bidder at $6,819,000 and said the low bid fell near the low end of the engineer’s opinion of probable cost. Engineers and trustees discussed change-order risk, noting a roughly 5% spread between bidders and that many change orders arise only if unexpected conditions appear during excavation. Woodard & Curran emphasized typical safeguards: verifying insurance and a detailed schedule of values before payment and recommending a resident inspector during construction.

On the Galina Road raw-water main, trustees approved a contract with Woodard & Curran for design, survey and construction oversight totaling approximately $76,000 ($35,000 for core design tasks, $11,000 for topographical survey, and additional oversight fees). The project would replace roughly 1,200 linear feet of 12-inch raw-water main and ties into a congressionally directed grant of about $990,000; staff said that grant must be used on a Route 29–adjacent project and that connecting the village-owned raw main to the Route 29 corridor made the project eligible.

Jim Revard and Sam Weeden Benner of Woodard & Curran answered technical questions from trustees about contingencies, mobilization differences in bids, and construction oversight. Trustees heard that the village had secured a favorable IEPA funding package for related water-treatment investments (principal forgiveness and low-interest loan portions were described) and that staff would submit required documents to IEPA by the June 10 deadline to finalize the loan agreement by month’s end.

What’s next: staff will issue a notice of intent to award to the selected bidder for the filtration plant, obtain required insurance and documentation, and proceed with IEPA documentation and construction-permit steps for the raw-water-main replacement and filtration plant.