By Jason Crane –
Director of Public Works for the Village of North Aurora, John Laskowski, right, gives Board members an update on the Silo Project, Monday, at the Village Board meeting. The plans are to renovate the existing silo behind Harner’s Bakery in North Aurora near the Fox River close to the intersection of Routes 31 and 56.
Village officials want the silo to be converted into a lighted observatory to be enhanced with outdoor seating and include a park and a kayak launch at the Fox River. The budget for the project was programmed in the FY 2019-2020 Route 31 TIF Fund in the amount of $300,000.
Bids received were substantially higher than the estimated project cost.
At the August 5 Village Board meeting the bids were rejected and staff members indicated they would evaluate options to move the project forward. Following the meeting staff members reached out to the low bidder, R.C. Wegman Construction, for potential feedback as to why the bids were higher than expected. The information received identified ambiguity within the contract documents, and the lack of competitive bids from sub-contractors, as factors contributing to a higher project cost.
After the bids were formally rejected, staff members met with representatives of RC Wegman to determine if there were any potential savings in hiring a construction company to work directly with the architect to refine specifications and reduce operational redundancies to lower construction costs. It was determined that the project may make sense to be evaluated from the perspective of a design-build project model in comparison to the traditional design-bid-build model initially used for the silo. Laskowski said design-build option presents advantages because it allows the contractor to be directly engaged in the design process. The contractor has the ability to suggest design changes to the architect that could reduce the cost of the project. In this case, because the silo documents already have been prepared, the contractor would perform a thorough review and make suggestions on where costs could be reduced. To eliminate ambiguity that was otherwise increasing the costs of the project. Board members agreed to work on a contract.