Report on Naperville tower's future not yet complete
A report designed to detail the structural problems with the tower that holds Naperville's Millennium Carillon has fallen behind schedule, the city engineer says.
The $148,000 report is commissioned as a follow-up to a preliminary document released last year that found cracked concrete, corroded structural steel and other deterioration, which could decrease the building's stability.
Once the follow-up report is complete, it's intended to serve as a conversation starter among city leaders about how to care for the Moser Tower in the future - whether to pay to maintain it as is, enclose the lower levels to match original architectural designs, use innovative engineering techniques to make repairs, tear the whole thing down, or come up with another solution entirely.
Bill Novack, director of transportation, engineering and development, said he anticipates receiving the completed report by consultant Engineering Resource Associates of Warrenville in about a month. Then, the meticulous work of reviewing and discussing it will begin, starting with members of the Riverwalk Commission's planning and development committee, progressing to the full commission, and later, to the Naperville Park District's board of commissioners and the city council.
Although the report's completion date has been pushed back from what originally was expected, Novack said he'd rather have the consultant take more time to ensure findings are accurate.
The report on the structural forensics of the 18-year-old Moser Tower will be based on about two weeks of site work this spring, lab testing on tower materials and reviews of shop drawings construction crews referred to while building the spire.
The 160-foot-tall tower, built in 2000 and completed in 2007 for a total of $7.1 million, holds the 72 bells of the Millennium Carillon and has become to many an icon and a symbol of Naperville.