Naperville Riverwalk work resumes

As renovations continued Friday on a two-block portion of Naperville's Riverwalk, city officials believe they've located the source of the unidentified petroleum substance crews unearthed Thursday.

City Engineering Manager Bob Kozurek said Friday he suspects the substance is residual gasoline that leaked into the soil from a gasoline station located at the site many years ago.

"We believe that would be the source," he said. "We've taken some samples to have evaluated and as soon as we learn exactly what it is, we'll devise a plan to clean it out."

He said construction crews immediately stopped working Thursday when the contaminant was discovered.

"That's not the type of work zone you want to be working in," he said. "So they immediately took steps to keep it from leaking more into the work zone and cleaned up the little bit that fell into the water."

Riverwalk Administrator Jan Erickson said renovation work on the two-block portion between Eagle and Main streets already had resumed Friday.

"We were pretty quickly given the go ahead by all of the environmental professionals who signed off on the situation," she said. "There is no reason to believe this would keep us from moving forward on the renovations."

The fire department was on the scene Thursday to contain any potential spills into the DuPage River. Floating dams used to contain any spills and protect the river were still in place Friday.

This is just the latest snag to strike the $1.44 million project that already has been hit by construction delays and cost overruns.

Work on the path began in early February with the goal of reconstructing the bulkhead wall from the 1930s that supports the lower walkway. But crews recently discovered the bedrock they were expecting to find is two to three feet deeper than anticipated.

Engineers and designers said they found a solution to that problem, and the city council on Tuesday authorized an additional $125,745 for redesign, materials and construction.

Despite exceeding the city's allotted funding, officials said the project still is under its original budget estimate of $1.8 million.

But the bedrock issue, combined with uncooperative weather and now this latest setback, means the project likely will be completed closer to Aug. 1 than the original date of June 30.