Lockport City Council approves summer water main project

Lockport — The Lockport City Council took steps Wednesday on two projects that could be starting construction in the city this spring.

During the City Council portion of the Jan. 15 meeting, contracts were awarded for engineering and construction for water main replacement along 11th Street from Garfield to Hamilton streets.

The “comprehensive” project will entail the complete replacement of the water main, roadway reconstruction, sidewalk installation, curb and gutter repairs, storm sewer enhancements, and landscape restoration, according to board documents.

The contract for the final engineering of the project was awarded to Civiltech Engineering for a total of $346,653, while the construction contract was awarded to PT Ferro Construction for a total of $2,757,406.25.

The project is part of the city’s ongoing water main restoration plan and the cost was accounted for in the 2025 budget.

According to City Manager Ben Benson, the north-south streets that run through the same area are slated to receive similar work next year.

Lockport Square Self-Storage

During the Committee of the Whole meeting, the board members heard a proposal from developer Jacob Development, Inc. to amend an annexation agreement for lot 6 of the Lockport Square development in order to give the developer more time to build a planned self-storage facility in the space. The lot is located along Farrell Road.

The developer first sought rezoning of the property, located west of Interstate 355 and south of 159th Street, in 2022, said City Attorney Sonni Choi Williams.

The previous amendments to the annexation agreement allow for the facility, which is intended to be a four-story, climate controlled building, to be constructed with a more recent building code than used elsewhere in the city and to have the property rezoned from C-2 Community Commercial to C-3 Highway Commercial.

While the most recent amendment, passed in 2023, stipulated that the building needed to be complete by June 30, 2024, Community and Economic Development Director Lance Thies explained that “two items delayed the start of this project.”

According to Thies, a few alterations to the building plan needed to be made, making the footprint slightly larger and reducing the number of bathrooms required by an outdated building code requirement.

“The old code required a bathroom on every floor because it was a multi-story building and storage facilities were defined as one-story outdoor sheds you drove between,” Thies said. “The newer version recognizes these types of facilities, which will not have many employees and require much less bathroom space.”

Thies then noted that once the building plans had been adjusted and construction could begin, interest rates had gone up to between 6.5 and 7 percent, making financial conditions difficult.

With interest rates down again, the developer hopes to begin construction on the 2.25 acre parcel.

Thies said the build is anticipated to take about 14 months once started, but the developer has requested a new deadline of July 31, 2026 in order to account for any potential delays.

The committee of the whole approved the request to go to a public hearing at the next City Council meeting on Feb. 5.