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TO: Mayor John Laesch
FROM: Kevin Anderson, City Traffic Engineer
DATE: September 29, 2025
SUBJECT:
A Resolution awarding H&H Electric Company (low bidder) the two-year citywide Traffic Signal and Street Light Maintenance contract.
PURPOSE:
The purpose is to award the contract for the citywide traffic signal maintenance to the low bidder, H&H Electric Company. The City does not have personnel with the expertise required to perform this work in-house.
BACKGROUND:
The City continues to participate with DuPage County, City of Naperville, and Village of Lombard on a joint bid for electrical maintenance services for our 128 traffic signal installations, including one serving a fire station entrance, that the City maintains. The intent of this partnership is to increase the number of traffic signals in the pool to obtain a lower price for routine monthly maintenance per traffic signal installation. DuPage County was the bidding agency.
DISCUSSION:
DuPage County let the “2026-2027 Traffic Signal and Street Light Maintenance” contract on September 4, 2025. Two contractors, H&H Electric Company and Meade Inc. participated in bidding. H&H Electric Company was the low-bidder for the Aurora portion of the joint contract at $1,998,801.76. Engineering estimate was $2,357,081.48. Meade Inc. was the low bidder for DuPage County and H&H Electric Company was the low bidder for Lombard and Naperville.
The contract includes detailed requirements for routine maintenance. In summary, the work includes monthly inspections of each traffic signal installation and lighting systems connected to them, responding to emergency calls (such as resetting flashing red signals and knock downs), responding to JULIE locate requests, and making minor repairs and adjustments. The contractor must provide a 24-hour dispatch center and be able to arrive onsite within 1 hour for emergency calls. The contract also includes non-routine maintenance to repair failed or damaged equipment and to make upgrades. The 2-year contract cost increased 21% or $424,438.40 over the current contract. The routine maintenance portion of the contract accounts for $1,212,789.84 (approx. 61%) of the contract, an 18% increase over the current contract.
By agreement, the City maintains 27 IDOT signalized intersections. IDOT participates in 50% of the maintenance cost of 20 of those intersections. The other 7 intersections are fully the City’s responsibility. Thus, IDOT will reimburse approximately $95,000 of the total routine maintenance cost during the two years of this contract.
Under the same agreement, the City participates in the cost of 14 of the 29 traffic signals maintained by IDOT within the City limits or on the border with Naperville. The City’s responsibility varies between 25% and 100% at those intersections. When weighting the percentages, the City is responsible for reimbursing IDOT for its cost to maintain the equivalent of 8 signalized intersections. IDOT’s traffic signal maintenance contractor currently charges $607.79 per month, so the City will be billed approximately $58,000 each year.
City has the option of having the contractor perform non-routine extra work such as replacing battery back-up systems, replacing damaged or failed loop detection, replacing failed video detection and surveillance cameras, adding cameras, adding pedestrian signals and buttons, and adding network switches to enhance reliability of the communication signals for the video cameras. The non-routine extra work portion of the proposed contract accounts for $636,011.92 (approximately 32%) of the contract.
In addition to the items mentioned above, the contract includes budgetary allowances totaling $150,000 (approximately 8%) for other extra work. The allowances may be used to make upgrades not included in the list of pay items that were bid and to repair or replace equipment that has been damaged by traffic, utility vehicles, mowers, etc. When damage is caused by traffic crashes, the City often recovers the cost from the parties who caused the damage.
It should be noted that H&H Electric Company’s as-bid cost for the maintenance items was almost $84,000 (7%) more than Meade Inc. Though the City does not expect to spend the entire $636,011.92 amount of non-routine extra work, we expect to more than recoup the difference over the duration of the project due to H&H Company’s lower unit prices for the other work.
H&H Electric Company has maintained traffic signals for Kane County, McHenry County, Village of Schaumburg, and the Village of Skokie. In addition, they have installed several traffic signals in Aurora recently. We expect them to be able to perform this work competently.
The following accounts will be utilized:
Repairs, Mtce, and Services Traffic Signals 101 4020 418 38 22
Repairs, Mtce, and Services Traffic Signals- State 101 4020 418 38 23
Traffic Light Pre-Emption Devices 255 3033 422 74 49 (GC33)
Video Monitoring 255 4020 418 77 03 (GC72)
IMPACT STATEMENT:
None.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Staff recommends acceptance of the low bid for traffic signal and street light maintenance and award of the contract to H&H Electric Company.
cc: Infrastructure and Technology Committee
CITY OF AURORA, ILLINOIS
RESOLUTION NO. _________
DATE OF PASSAGE ________________
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A Resolution awarding H&H Electric Company, the low bidder, for the two-year citywide Traffic Signal and Street Light Maintenance contract.
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WHEREAS, the City of Aurora has a population of more than 25,000 persons and is, therefore, a home rule unit under subsection (a) of Section 6 of Article VII of the Illinois Constitution of 1970; and
WHEREAS, subject to said Section, a home rule unit may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs for the protection of the public health, safety, morals, and welfare; and
WHEREAS, the City desires to provide citywide traffic signal and street lighting maintenance;
WHEREAS, the most efficient and cost effective method to provide comprehensive traffic signal and street lighting maintenance is to contract services;
WHEREAS, the city participated in a Joint Bidding process led by DuPage County; and
WHEREAS, H&H Electric Company was the joint low bidder of the 2026-2027 Traffic Signal and Street Light Maintenance contract and the bid amount for City of Aurora came at $1,998,801.76; and
WHEREAS, the City of Aurora FY 2025 Budget and anticipated FY 2026, 2027 Budgets provide funding in the following accounts:
Repairs, Mtce, and Services Traffic Signals 101 4020 418 38 22
Repairs, Mtce, and Services Traffic Signals- State 101 4020 418 38 23
Traffic Light Pre-Emption Devices 255 3033 422 74 49 (GC33)
Video Monitoring 255 4020 418 77 03 (GC72)
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Aurora, Illinois, as follows: award H&H electric Company, the low bidder, for the two-year citywide Traffic Signal and Street Light Maintenance contract.