An alderman said he was concerned with the look of such a sewer and the disturbance to a neighborhood.
ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst is planning an above-ground sanitary sewer line for four months as part of a larger project.
An alderman expressed concern about the look of such a sewer on North York Street, a key thoroughfare.
Earlier this year, Elmhurst entered a $3.1 million contract with a company to reline more than a mile's worth of force main pipe from the sewer lift station in the city's northside industrial park.
After awarding the contract, city staffers discovered downstream infrastructure could not handle the added sewage during the project, according to a city memo.
So the city came up with a new plan. That involves laying down a temporary 12-inch pipe along North York Street in front of Churchville Middle School and an apartment complex.
It would also run next to houses on the dead-end streets running north of North End Avenue.
At Monday's City Council meeting, Ward 3 Alderman Michael Bram, who represents the neighborhood, said he understood it cost less to run the line on the surface.
But he said he was concerned with the aesthetics of such a line and the disturbance to a residential neighborhood.
He said he preferred that more of the pipe go through the industrial park. But he said he was told that such a route would conflict with other utilities and cross more driveways.
Bram also said the city was paying for the project with money from a special tax district on North York Street, known as a tax increment financing district, or TIF. He said it should be paid for from the city's capital improvements account.
"I would like to see some additional projects happen in this TIF, but really, from a financial perspective, we cannot pursue them or even consider them because we've been using this TIF and other TIFs to do capital improvement projects," Bram said.
Ward 7 Alderman Rex Irby, who is on the committee that recommended the new bypass, said he and his fellow members struggled with the idea.
"It's a tough one," he said. "It's something we really didn't want to have to do."
With the unexpected bypass, the city's contract with West Chicago-based Swallow Construction is rising to a little more than $3.5 million, according to the committee's memo.
If the city had rebid the bypass, the overall project cost would have risen to nearly $4 million, the memo said. So the savings are about $400,000.
The council voted 11-1 for the above-ground sewer, with Bram dissenting. The other Ward 3 alderman, Chris Jensen, joined the majority. Alderwomen Jennifer Veremis and Noel Talluto were absent.