Longtime Elk Grove sewer contractor John Bria dies

John Bria played a major role in developing Elk Grove Village, but not with bricks and mortar. Instead, he helped provide much of the infrastructure that now sustains the community.

The longtime sewer and water contractor died Wednesday. He was 81.

His company, Bria Sewer and Water Construction Co., operated from 1960 to 2000, with his crews laying pipes in housing developments across Elk Grove and its business park, and eventually much of the Northwest suburbs.

"My dad literally helped develop Elk Grove," said his son, Anthony Bria.

Bria grew up in Chicago and worked as a laborer as a teen before briefly leaving the construction business to work with a Chicago chemist. His time in the lab didn't last long, but it gave Bria an appreciation for the minerals in soil and its underlying bedrock that would serve him well in laying pipes.

His big break came when he was awarded the sewer and water contract from Centex, the Dallas-based company that developed much of Elk Grove in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and its business park, beginning in 1962.

"My dad was one of the first contractors in the country to use laser beam technology in laying pipe," Anthony Bria said. "The laser would give him an accurate reading of the type of soil underneath the ground; that wasn't available by just using a level.

"There is so much clay under the ground in this area," Bria said, "that my dad had to establish that there was good bedrock before laying pipes."

Bria moved his family to Elk Grove in 1966 and he became part of the bedrock of the community as well. He was active in the Knights of Columbus and the Masonic Lodge, and he and his brother used their trucks to plow snow from cul-de-sacs during the winter.

He also coached his son in baseball and football, and in the mid-1970s he helped to build a prep football field, on land behind the current Elk Grove Police Department.

When torrential rains threatened to ruin a much-anticipated opening night, Bria used his contacts to have a helicopter fly overhead to dry the field.

"That was the kind of guy he was," his son said. "He knew everyone and would do anything to help people."

Besides his son, Bria is survived by his wife, Frances, and daughter, Gina (Daniel) Caithamer, as well as five grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will take place at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, May 13, at Queen of the Rosary Church, 680 W. Elk Grove Blvd, Elk Grove Village.