Burns & McDonnell (burnsmcd.com) project team members and The Village of Homewood leaders recently celebrated completion of a $12.25 million design-build project to transition the community’s water to a new supplier. This allows the village to continue providing safe and sustainable water service for residents and businesses at a more predictable water rate.

With the end of its current water supply agreement drawing near, Homewood, IL initiated a new agreement with the City of Chicago Heights, which purchases Lake Michigan water from nearby Hammond, IN. Using a progressive design-build approach, The Village partnered with Burns & McDonnell to design and construct 2.5 miles of 30-inch transmission main and an 11 million-gallon-per-day booster pump station.

Throughout the design-build process, the team collaborated and created value engineering ideas that reduced the project’s overall cost by over a million dollars. The project team identified critical construction permits early in the project and had construction staff meet with state agencies to receive final permits before construction began. With this process the team reduced four months from the project schedule and allowed for an on-time delivery of the new water source to the village.

Additionally, the team was able to identify critical procurement needs early in the process to address supply chain and inflationary issues seen during the pandemic. By creating a plan to receive the 2.5 miles of pipe for the project early, the village avoided $600,000 of additional costs.

This was the largest public works project in The Village of Homewood’s history and came at no additional costs to the residents and businesses. The village started building up its water fund reserve in 2005 to avoid borrowing additional funding through the issuance of bonds. The project began in 2019, with construction starting in early 2021. Homewood completed the transition to the new supplier on time and within budget in September.

Burns & McDonnell is a family of companies bringing together an unmatched team of 10,000 engineers, construction and craft professionals, architects, and more to design and build critical infrastructure. Learn more at burnsmcd.com.