Joliet will study NorthPoint impact on water system

Joliet plans to launch a study to determine the future impact of the NorthPoint Development project on the city’s water and sewer system.

The City Council will vote Tuesday on an agreement by which NorthPoint would pay the estimated $230,165 cost for the study.

It’s one of two items on the agenda for the NorthPoint project, which has been under construction since June.

The council also will vote on an engineering study for a grade separation at a Union Pacific railroad track at Millsdale Road, which would ease the passage of trucks for the NorthPoint warehouse development dubbed Third Coast Intermodal Hub.

NorthPoint already has covered the $25,000 cost for the engineering study, according to a city staff memo to the council.

Council members at the Monday workshop meeting asked no question about either study, both of which had previously been reviewed and recommended for approval by the council’s Public Service Committee.

The potential impact of the NorthPoint project on water supplies was an issue raised by opponents of the project, which is being built on land previously used for farming.

NorthPoint and city officials have said warehouses use less water than houses, comparing the warehouse project to potential residential development.

The water study “will calculate the water demands and sanitary sewer flows” created by the NorthPoint project and other development in the southeast region of the city, according to the city staff memo to council. The area has seen ongoing warehouse construction connected to the intermodal yards run by Union Pacific in Joliet and BNSF in Elwood.

NorthPoint’s Third Coast Intermodal Hub now is planned at 2,300 acres.

Critics contend it will be expanded once a boundary agreement expires between Joliet and Manhattan. Manhattan officials have opposed the NorthPoint project, but an expiration of the boundary agreement would allow NorthPoint to bring more land lying between the two municipalities to Joliet for annexation.

NorthPoint has begun construction in the Millsdale Road area, where it plans to build a bridge to cross Route 53 and potentially a bridge over the Union Pacific railroad tracks.

Grade separation could also involve a railroad bridge over Millsdale Road, and either one would provide a more open path for trucks moving from new warehouses in Third Coast Intermodal Hub to the intermodal yards.

The grade separation study up for a vote Tuesday is needed before any bridge could be built at the railroad site.