advertisement

Ackerman roof repairs begin next month

Permanent repairs will be made next month to the leaking Ackerman Sports & Fitness Center roof in Glen Ellyn.

Pending formal approval next month of a construction contract, the park district will pay West Chicago-based Solaris Roofing Solutions $679,125 to attach a single-layer insulated membrane to the existing roof.

That bid amount — accepted by the park board this week — is less than the park district expected. Its roof consultant, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, had estimated the cost at between $1 million and $1.2 million.

The roof at the 88,000-square-foot facility has been leaking since the building opened in January 2010. The park district and the firm it hired to build Ackerman, T.A. Bowman Constructors, have been involved in legal wrangling since Bowman filed a breach of contract suit in DuPage County circuit court last July.

The contractor has argued the park district didn’t allow work crews the opportunity to correct roof leaks, and is seeking the money it says it is still owed for work at Ackerman.

The park district responded with a suit of its own, and is hoping to recover money spent to fix the roof.

The next court date is scheduled for April 12.

The permanent repair work is scheduled to begin in mid-April and be complete by the end of May, according to park district Executive Director Dave Harris.

A $10,540 temporary covering was applied to the building’s four corners late last summer, but that was only intended to get the roof through the winter.

“The temporary repair was never done with the intention that it will resolve all the problems. It was going to try to minimize the ongoing challenges and it did,” Harris said.

Meanwhile, a system of buckets, tarps and flexible piping remains throughout the facility in an effort to collect incoming water. Those will remain until the permanent repair is complete, Harris said.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.