As Forest Park works to replace its lead service lines into local homes and businesses with copper ones, removing lead from drinking water, it’s approaching the next phase of the village-wide pipe project.
A decade after the village started replacing lead pipes from the water main to a property’s parkway, the village is now removing pipes running from the Buffalo Box valve at the parkway to 18 inches inside buildings. Phase one installed copper pipes from the B-box to homes and businesses south of Roosevelt Road, from Harlem to Beloit Avenue. Phase two did the same for buildings south of I-290, from Beloit to Des Plaines Avenue.
The third phase will take place in the 400, 500 and 600 blocks of Hannah, Thomas and Beloit. At the Nov. 24 village council meeting, commissioners approved a resolution allowing Christopher B. Burke Engineering to provide engineering services for the third phase of the project. Commissioners also discussed the rank and role of the engineer on the project.
Commissioner Maria Maxham asked why, in Christopher B. Burke Engineering’s proposal for the project, they recommended a level-five engineer – and what that meant.
“I guess I’m wondering, why do we need a level-five engineer for eight hours a day, for 760 total hours, instead of, say, a level-three engineer?” Maxham asked. “I don’t know the difference between a level three and a level five . . . This is only coming from a place of making sure that we’re using our resources as wisely as possible.”
According to the meeting agenda, the village will pay Christopher B. Burke Engineering $216,500 for services including coordinating, implementing and providing pre-construction engineering, construction observation, and post-construction services for phase three of the lead service line replacement project.
After looking up the distinction between the two levels of engineers, Sal Stella, director of the public works department, came up to a microphone to address commissioners at the Nov. 24 meeting.
“Level three is more like an entry level, someone who just came out of college, doing this for his first time,” Stella said. He added that he worked with a level-three engineer over the summer while replacing the water main and resurfacing part of Ferdinand Avenue. “There were a lot of things that he skipped and wasn’t really knowledgeable about. A major sewer issue was left behind that was supposed to be fixed.”
Stella said that a level-five engineer is more of a senior role, something that’s necessary when fixing water service where, if something goes wrong, peoples’ basements could flood.
“When you’re dealing with people and their belongings, you need a more senior role,” Stella said, “versus somebody that just got out of college and doesn’t really know the role very well. It’s not just a regular slam-dunk water main project. There’s a lot involved.”
Stella added that level-five engineers have to be knowledgeable to deal with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, which might award the village the Illinois public water supply loan, a forgivable loan.
To cover the total cost of phase three of the project, the village requested from the IEPA a forgivable loan of nearly $2.5 million. The cost of the first two phases was completely covered by the IEPA’s public water supply loans.
Village Attorney Nick Peppers agreed that a higher-level engineer is more equipped to work with the IEPA.
“Beyond the integration with the public and the design, [level-five engineers are] also integral with the IEPA segment of all this. It’s really complicated,” Peppers said. “This is our third go around and, in my perspective, I’m only dealing with the most-senior engineers at Burke to manage the IEPA loan process to keep us on track.” He added that he checked, and the village has had level-five engineers on previous phases of the service line replacement project.
Village Administrator Rachell Entler confirmed that the water line replacement project is complicated, and that she and Stella meet weekly with Burke engineers to make sure everything is exactly right.
“Stage one and stage two have not been perfect,” Entler said at the council meeting. “Even having done it twice, there are still issues that are coming up that we’re having to work through, not only with the loan, but then the actual process.”
Entler told the Review that, though there haven’t been a lot of challenges, Forest Park’s aging infrastructure has presented a few issues in updating lead pipes. With some homes that are over 100 years old, water meters aren’t always accessible, hidden behind a wall. Or sometimes the contractor can’t immediately locate the B-box in front of the house, so the village’s water department employees come to help.
“We’ll continue to see those across each of the stages,” Entler told the Review about dealing with older homes while replacing lead service lines.
Entler said the village hopes to open a construction bid for phase three of the lead pipe replacement project in January, with construction likely starting in the spring.