Old Elk Grove motel teardown delayed by bigger asbestos cleanup job
Demolition of a dilapidated motel on Higgins Road in Elk Grove Village has been delayed while cleanup crews remove more asbestos and waste from the site.
"They found a lot more in there than they thought," Mayor Craig Johnson said of the former Days Inn motel the village purchased in June. "The more they dug into it, the more they found, and the more remediation that has to go with it."
"We'll take care of it," he added. "Yes, it's longer than we hoped."
Colfax Corp. is handling the pre-demolition asbestos and waste abatement work at the two-acre site at 1920 E. Higgins Road.
Beyond the environmental remediation work they already knew about when the job began a month ago, crews also discovered asbestos hidden behind stucco walls, 280 linear feet of water piping wrapped in asbestos behind bathrooms walls, and 410 cubic yards of waste - more than double what was expected - within a garbage disposal.
The village board Tuesday is set to pay the Chicago-based remediation firm nearly $40,000 for that extra cleanup work, for a total contract of $269,110.
Earlier this month, the board inked a $40,200 agreement with Lake Bluff-based Deigan & Associates, an environmental consultant, to oversee the project.
Des Plaines-based Albrecht Enterprises got the $264,275 contract to demolish the two-building motel complex, which is now scheduled for the end of the year.
The village paid $4.25 million for the 57-year-old motel, the original Hyatt Chalet, with an eye toward clearing the site for future redevelopment.
Last year, the village paid $1.35 million for the neighboring property, the former Phoenix/Hunters nightclub, which was subsequently torn down.
Johnson said it's possible the neighboring properties could be combined for a larger redevelopment, but there aren't any set plans right now.