Doubling down

SHOREWOOD – Obtaining Lake Michigan water to satisfy long-term water needs was a main talking point in Shorewood Mayor Rick Chapman’s State of the Village address.

But a new water tower under construction off Mound Road between Ingolsby and County Line roads will soon satisfy the urgent need for more water capacity today.

“We should have enough water above ground in our storage tanks to have at least 1.8 days of normal pumping for emergency purposes,” Chapman said, citing a recommendation from the American Water Works Association.

“We barely make one day’s average pumping in the two tanks we have,” he said.

The village has 1.5 million gallons of storage capacity in its two tanks: 500,000 gallons at the Black Road and Route 59 tank, and 1 million gallons at the tower near Walnut Trails Elementary School.

Doubling capacity

The 1.5 million gallon Mound Road tower is expected to double the water capacity. The basement of the tower was completed during the winter, including sanitary and drainage utilities, Public Works Director Chris Drey said.

“[Workers] are welding pieces right now for the base,” Drey said.

The $4.3 million water tower project started earlier this year. It’s expected to be completed by the end of December and become operational for 2016.

The tower will be 122 feet tall, shorter than the other towers but at the same elevation because the Mound Road tower rests on a higher elevation, Drey said.

The project was put out to bid for a second time last summer after the first call for bids only attracted one, which came in at more than the village estimated.

Two bids were received the second time: $4.33 million from CB&I Constructors and $5.1 million from Caldwell Tanks. The CB&I Constructors bid came under the village estimate of $5 million and was accepted by the Village Board on June 10.

An engineering report by Village Engineer Brian Welch also noted CB&I was an excellent contractor.

Chapman said the village has planned for the water tower for the past seven years.

“We’ve been planning these capital improvements through a five-year plan,” Chapman said. “We started working through finance sources. A lot of those are through new development fees, building up funds and looking for ways to pay off bonds to put us in a better position.”

Planning for expansion

The water tower isn’t just a quick fix for present-day issues. Village officials hope it will allow for further residential growth on the village’s undeveloped western and southwestern regions.

“I don’t know what the next 15 years will bring us,” Drey said. “But right now it’s going to be used for the whole village. The tower will still maintain the same pressure as the other tanks.”

Drey said future water use depends on the housing market, but the Mound Road tower would help serve immediately developing and future development areas in the western part of the village.

Neighborhoods such as Lake Forrest, Westminster Gardens, Hidden Creek and Kipling Estates will theoretically get water from the tower.

Chapman said the Mound Road tower is the largest public works project he could remember.

“But these are just the necessary things that have to be done to keep infrastructure up to date,” he said.