A mistake on the bid form has cost an East Peoria firm the multi-million dollar Mt. Carmel water plant construction project. Bids for the project were opened on September 15th and officials have been reviewing the bids since then. At Monday’s City Council meeting, Terry Boyer of Donahue and Associates, the engineering firm overseeing the project, said the bid from River City Construction for $9.66 million was the lowest, but had to be rejected….

Mayor Joe Judge said the owner River City Construction reached out to him on different occasions trying to remedy the oversight…

Instead, the project was conditionally awarded to the next lowest bidder which was Kieffer Brothers Construction for just under $10 million. The bid award was made conditional since it has to now go to the I-E-P-A for approval. The new water plant will be constructed on the site of the current facility on South Cherry Street.