In Bloomington-Normal, the orange barrels pop up in two waves; first when it starts getting warm in the spring and second after ISU students leave town. The barrels first appear on smaller jobs where roadways are less likely to be significantly impacted. Then after ISU students leave the second wave hits with more barrels and more lane closures.
ISU held its graduation ceremonies last Saturday and consequently this week the second wave of orange barrels popped up blocking lanes on major streets like East College Street and North Main Street. While the East College Street project that we reported on recently is a road project, the current construction on North Main Street is for the Water Main Replacement Project.
According to Jim Wright, the Superintendent for George Gildner Incorporated, the contractor on the North Main project, “Basically we are doing a 12 inch water main replacement, approximately 3000 feet to provide better circulation pressure and volume for the downtown Main Street Corridor in Normal.”
The water main project is costing $3.94 million. The section of the project now under construction runs from West College Street to West Beaufort Street.
“With all the development down here you have to keep up with infrastructure as time goes on,” Wright said. “If things are newer you have less maintenance and less breakdown along the way which is a very costly issue.”
New pipe is being installed on the east side of Main. After it is in service the old pipe on the west side of Main will be removed. The existing pipe is cast iron and the new pipe is ductile iron. The newer material is less likely to break. Life expectancy on the new main is 50 to 60 years.
The water main project is being done ahead of a Main St. roadway improvement project scheduled in the Illinois Department of Transportation’s (IDOT’s) Five Year Transportation Improvements Plan (TIP). The water project is scheduled to be completed before the roadway project starts.
The water main project is costing $1.4 million more than the Town of Normal of Normal had budgeted.
The town council passed a $1.9 million budget adjustment to cover the cost overrun and provide some contingency funding. That amount is being funded by the Main and Osage tax increment financing (TIF) district. The district will be paying the water fund for this project through Fiscal Year (2026/2027).
