By Bob Seidenberg
Evanston has turned to Christopher B. Burke Engineering Limited to oversee a number of major public works projects, but a City Council member wants to hear more about what went wrong with one of them as the city again engages the group.
During the June 12 meeting of the Administration & Public Works Committee, First Ward Council Member Clare Kelly championed a successful request for city staff to solicit Burke’s response to its oversight of the Fountain Square project.
Kelly’s comments came in response to staff recommending that the firm be awarded an $88,230 contract to provide engineering services for a Central Street/Central Park Avenue traffic signal modernization project.
On the same agenda, staff also named CBBEL as one of four consulting engineering firms prequalified for three years to provide transportation, engineering and surveying services on the 40 to 50 transportation and right-of-way utility projects the city undertakes annually.
Before the items were pushed to the City Council, Kelly said she would like to see “some sort of reconciliation” or explanation from Burke regarding “what transpired and wasn’t effective or didn’t apply,” in the firm’s oversight of the Fountain Square renovation in 2017.
“It’s important to know if we’re going to award multiple contracts to Burke,” she said.
The city had hired CBBEL in 2017 to provide design and construction engineering services on the renovation of the fountain area — a centerpiece of downtown. Copenhaver Construction. was the contractor on the project.
In March 2022, the city issued a demand letter to Copenhaver — seeking $5 million in damages — charging that the firm installed incorrectly sized water stops inside the fountain and did not follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for installation, causing water loss of up to 4,536 gallons per day.
The damages sought are for the estimated cost of repairing and reconstructing the fountain, which has been turned off since 2021.
The case is stalled in the Circuit Court of Cook County with the city seeking damages of more than $5.9 million as well as attorney fees. Meanwhile, Copenhaver has responded with a vigorous defense.
During citizen comment leading off the A&PW meeting, Mike Vasilko, a local architect, noted that CBBEL handled not only the engineering and the design on the Fountain Square project, but also construction management.
“It cost the city almost a million dollars for their services, and the project was a failure,” he said. “There’s got to be other firms that are doing the same thing, and it just seems to be some need for some kind of reconciliation, I would say, with Christopher Burke before they continue to get hundreds of thousands of Evanston tax dollars.”
Kelly followed on those comments during committee discussion of the traffic signal project, arguing that the city needs to hear more from CBBEL about what went wrong on the Fountain Square project before engaging the firm on new ones.
She said the city could ask the firm to provide its explanation either in a closed-door session or in written form.
During the discussion, Kelly said she wasn’t necessarily objecting to the traffic signal contract, “but I don’t know what the urgency is.”
Responding, Lara Biggs, the city’s capital planning and engineering bureau chief, said that there was some urgency in the case of the signalization project.
“Although it may not seem like that big of a deal, we’re kind of already delayed,” she said. “Things like the traffic signal intersection at Central Park and Central, we actually don’t really have a way to repair if certain parts fail at this point of time.”
Official speaks in firm’s support
At the A&PW Committee meeting, David Stoneback, Evanston’s deputy city manager, said a staff review found that Christopher Burke Engineering should not bear responsibility for what went wrong on the Fountain Square project.
She said the city could ask the firm to provide its explanation either in a closed-door session or in written form.
During the discussion, Kelly said she wasn’t necessarily objecting to the traffic signal contract, “but I don’t know what the urgency is.”
Responding, Lara Biggs, the city’s capital planning and engineering bureau chief, said that there was some urgency in the case of the signalization project.
“Although it may not seem like that big of a deal, we’re kind of already delayed,” she said. “Things like the traffic signal intersection at Central Park and Central, we actually don’t really have a way to repair if certain parts fail at this point of time.”
Official speaks in firm’s support
At the A&PW Committee meeting, David Stoneback, Evanston’s deputy city manager, said a staff review found that Christopher Burke Engineering should not bear responsibility for what went wrong on the Fountain Square project.
When the challenges at Fountain Square occurred, staff did a thorough review of what transpired out there,” he told committee members, “and what we found was that the contractor used a product which they never submitted for review or approval, and then put it into the fountain without approval from the engineer and a consulting engineer doing the work.”
“So based on that,” Stoneback added, “Burke would not have had the opportunity to say this was the wrong product or deny the use of it. So it got installed and then the damage occurred later. So we found that at that time Christopher Burke did not do anything improperly — that it was the contractor who was to ask for approval” and that was the reason the city brought litigation against the firm.
Further, he said, Burke has been responsive to the city and has continued to work with officials, spending considerable time “redesigning what potentially the repair could be” at no cost to the city.”
Contractor claimed to follow approved job requirements
The city has argued that without getting its approval for the bentonite water stop, Copenhaver installed CETCO RX-101 water stops at the bottom of the fountain walls.
In a July 21, 2022 response, Copenhaver said that it didn’t submit drawings for the bentonite water stop or waterproofing for review by the city, “as the structural general notes for the project had already specified that bentonite water stops may be used.”
The company said that it installed the CETCO RX-101 water stops “as permitted by the structural notes the City approved.”
The Copenhaver response took note that CBBEL’s scope of services for the project included providing “full time, on-site, construction engineering services to ensure that the work is being performed in accordance with the construction documents and to document construction activities.”
Asked about the assertions, in a statement issued June 16, CBBEL said it will not comment “on what is an ongoing lawsuit between our client, the City of Evanston, and its contractor.”
In further committee discussion, Kelly expressed hope we [committee members] “can get concurrent with this, get an explanation from Burke — just, I think in terms of accountability.”
Her motion directed staff to request from Burke an explanation on what failed at Fountain Square.
“You know, whether they’ve accepted responsibility, or what happened that could be improved moving forward,” Kelly added.
Council Member Jonathan Nieuwsma, 4th Ward, argued against seeking an explanation from Burke.
“I don’t think we’re going to learn anything new by this process,” he said. “I mean, staff has delivered this information to us at multiple times since this incident happened. I don’t anticipate we’re going to be learning anything new. I would rather not put somebody through this exercise. So I don’t think we need to have that report again to tell us what we already know.”
Kelly’s motion, however, was seconded by Council Member Krissie Harris, 2nd Ward, and approved in a voice vote.
In a separate motion, the committee approved staff proposals to award Burke the traffic signal project as well as placing the firm on the prequalified list for future projects.
Those proposals also were approved in 8-0 votes later by the full council.
