Rains make collapsed culvert work in Waukegan more complicated

Oct. 04--The excavation work around a collapsed 114-year-old culvert in Waukegan was complicated by rains continuing this week, but the project remains on track, city officials said.

The repairs to the culvert, which carries the Waukegan River under Washington Street, is estimated to cost at least $1.765 million, Mayor Sam Cunningham said Monday evening, adding that the numbers are "very preliminary."

That's if crews don't have to use overtime to get the work done before winter and if excavation doesn't uncover any surprises, Cunningham said. He expects to have firmer numbers once the excavation work is complete.

The plan is to replace the existing 135-foot culvert with a new 10-foot-diameter pipe made with concrete and reinforced with steel, according to City Council documents and project contractors. The work is estimated to take 30 to 45 days.

The culvert, which dates back to 1904 and is made of limestone blocks mortared together, likely deteriorated quickly due to its age, said Brett Sauter, a structural group manager with Ciorba Group, the engineering firm that conducted an assessment of the city's bridges and culverts starting last year.

Once one block fell, other portions became less secure, he said late last month when the damage escalated and Washington had to be closed to traffic just west of downtown.

"Think of a brick wall," Sauter added. "You start to taking out some of those bricks, (and) it's a really unstable structure."

The Waukegan City Council unanimously approved a contract Monday evening with Campanella & Sons, Inc. to do the work, waiving its normal bidding and local hiring requirements in light of the emergency nature of the project.

Cunningham said the plan is to use existing debt taken out to fund infrastructure improvements across the city, but he added Monday evening that he has also reached out to federal and state agencies to see if additional funding options are available.

The city is also planning on filing an insurance claim, though it is unclear whether the insurance company will challenge the claim, Cunningham added. The deductible for the policy, which includes culverts, is $500,000.

The damaged portion of Washington was closed Sept. 21 between Glen Rock Avenue and West Street before rains last week washed out even more of the roadway.

Crews then removed 100 by 100 feet of pavement from the roadway, city spokesman David Motley said, citing Public Works Director Mike Hewitt.

A sanitary sewer bypass -- designed to prevent a rupture of the sanitary sewer line that runs underneath Washington Street from sending sewage into the Waukegan River and on to Lake Michigan -- has also been completed, said Clint Ferguson, an operations manager with Infrastructure Engineering Inc., which covers most of the city's day-to-day engineering needs.

Another bypass to address the backed-up Waukegan River and prevent upstream flooding has also been completed, Ferguson said.

The two bypasses have prevented those concerns from becoming a reality, but the rain has washed away some of the newly uncovered soil in the excavation area and made the ground slicker for crews, Motley said. To create a more stable surface for vehicles, a gravel roadway has been installed, and a person will monitor the river bypass overnight for as long as the rains continue to ensure the pump keeps working.

Lake County saw between 0.9 and 1.7 inches of rainfall Monday into Tuesday, according to a report prepared by Bob Gardiner, a permit engineer with the Lake County Stormwater Management Commission. Thunderstorms passing through the area Wednesday night resulted in up to 0.3 inches of rain in parts of the county.

The National Weather Service has issued an alert warning of increased chances that rivers in the area will flood as additional waves of rains and thunderstorms are possible through the weekend.

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