Aurora will spend over half a million dollars to fix a leak in one of the city’s major water pipes, located under railroad tracks, after the City Council recently approved a contract for the repair.
City officials over the holidays discovered a leak in the city’s 36-inch southeast transmission main, which carries about 55% of the drinking water that leaves Aurora’s treatment plant.
While typically that wouldn’t be huge problem, as the pipe can be taken out of service for a short time for repairs, the location of the leak makes it “not an easy fix” because the city can’t just dig up the railroad tracks, Aurora Director of Public Works Jason Bauer told the Aurora City Council recently.
In addition to the railroad, the location is difficult because there’s a creek on the north side of the tracks and a hill on the south, Assistant Director of Public Works Kurtis Muth told the Aurora City Council’s Infrastructure and Technology Committee on Jan. 26.
There is lower demand for water at this time of year, so the pipe can be taken out of service temporarily to get the work done, according to Bauer. The transmission main connects to the city’s water network at many different points, so it can be bypassed for a time.
The leak is located under the southern-most track near Solfisburg Park, just west of where North Ohio Street passes over the railroad. While the leak hasn’t gotten any worse since city officials noticed it, they aren’t sure if it is a crack or a hole, or how bad it is, since they aren’t able to see it yet, Bauer has said.
Instead of spending two months going through the typical bidding process for a construction contract, the city will use an existing emergency repair contract to do digging and related work, plus staff reached out to several companies capable of fixing the leak to find one capable of doing it for the lowest price.
Vortex Infrastructure Services, Inc., was selected to repair the pipe, and a contract with the company for $558,470 was unanimously approved by the Aurora City Council on Tuesday.
In total, the repair is likely to cost at least $600,000 but could be up to $800,000, depending on what additional work the city wants done, Bauer previously said.
The city’s plan is to line the pipe. It will take three to four weeks for the company to manufacture the liner, Bauer has said, but in the meantime the construction company already under contract with the city for emergencies will be doing work to prepare the site for the installation of the liner.
The liner is already being fabricated, Muth said, and the repair is expected to take place in mid- to late February. It will take about a week to excavate for the repair, and then another week to actually line the pipe, he said.
Leaks happen all the time for a variety of reasons, including nearby soil or a defect in the pipe, but it is possible that traffic on the railroad tracks could have caused the leak, according to Bauer.
However, he has said that the pipe does have a casing that takes the brunt of the force when a train goes over the tracks.
Even if railroad traffic did have something to do with the leak, Bauer previously said, the company wouldn’t be responsible for the cost of repairs.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com