Lake Michigan water pipeline bids come in higher than expected

Yorkville City Hall says that a big part of the connection project to the DuPage Water Commission, which will supply Lake Michigan water to the city, is more expensive than expected.

City Administrator Bart Olson says bids to build the first section of pipeline from Naperville to Oswego, Yorkville, and Montgomery came in much higher than anticipated.

“The unfortunate news, is that they’ve extrapolated out their total project cost for that run and what they had estimated to be three hundred million dollars, between all three communities is now north of four hundred million dollars,” Olson said. “That is double digit percentage increases on what’s been previously communicated to us and to the public by our own engineers, other engineers, staff, other people.”

Olson says the city’s portion of the project is expected to cost around $150 million. The new water source is intended to replace the diminishing aquifer that currently serves the city.

He says it’s not yet clear how the higher-than-expected costs from the DuPage Water Commission will affect Yorkville’s overall share, but the commission is working on engineering changes to lower the price.