– September 1991 Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp. performs what was a seemingly simple procedure for the century-old company: driving two sets of wooden pilings into the floor of the Chicago River to protect the Kinzie Street bridge from boat and barge traffic.
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– Jan. 14 Two employees of Tele-Communications Inc. videotape a segment of the tunnel system during a standard survey to explore the possible extension of TCI cable lines. The crew sees knee-deep silt and water leaking through crumbling walls.
Days later, a TCI employee attempts to report the matter to the city, but can`t reach the appropriate official because city departments are being reorganized.
– Feb. 26 At the damaged site, TCI employees see the city official they normally deal with on tunnel matters. The official, whom TCI declined to name, reportedly tells them, ”Call me tomorrow.”
– Feb. 27 A TCI employee calls the city official and explains in detail the damage he observed at the tunnel site.
– March 2 TCI employees again see the city official near the damaged tunnel. The official reportedly assures them that city workers have viewed the damage.
– March 16 An inspector from the city General Services Department locates the site. A few days later, a Department of Transportation specialist returns to the location and photographs the crumbling walls.
– April 1 Staffers from the Departments of Transportation and General Services meet to discuss the problem.
– April 2 Chief Bridge Engineer Louis Koncza writes a memo to Acting Transportation Commissioner John LaPlante. Koncza urges immediate repairs. Otherwise, Koncza warns, the city will face the ”danger of flooding out the entire freight tunnel system.”
LaPlante seeks bids for repair work. But when they come in above the city`s estimate of $10,000, he seeks new bids.
– 5:57 a.m. Monday Bill McGing, a boiler room engineer at the Merchandise Mart, notices water pouring into a Mart subbasement. He calls the Fire Department.
– 6 to 7 a.m. Monday Flooding reports start to trickle in from other Loop landmarks, including City Hall and Marshall Field`s. The floodwaters` source becomes clear: A hole in the river floor, possibly breached by the bridge pilings, is sending water into the city`s turn-of-the-century freight tunnel system.
– 10 a.m. to noon Monday Commonwealth Edison shuts off power to a substantial portion of the Loop in order to avoid water damage to electrical systems. Building evacuations begin. Buses and trains carry commuters home early.
– Tuesday morning The Mercantile Exchange holds limited trading, but extensive flood damage closes the Board of Trade. Field`s and Carson Pirie Scott say they may be closed for days or even weeks.
Gov. Jim Edgar declares Chicago a disaster area.
– 1:54 p.m. Tuesday The first lawsuit stemming from the flood is filed-a 7 1/2-page, class-action complaint brought on behalf of a restaurant and an insurance company. Defendants include the city and Great Lakes Dredge & Dock. – 2:20 p.m. Tuesday Mayor Richard Daley announces that city officials knew about the leak as long ago as February. He demands and gets the resignation of LaPlante, a longtime city employee.
– Wednesday morning Chicago Transit Authority subways remain closed, but the rest of the public transit system is largely back to normal.
– Noon to 2 p.m. Wednesday The Board of Trade, still struggling with flood damage, holds a limited trading session. The Merc holds its first normal business day of the week.
– 12:15 p.m. Wednesday A total ban on on-street downtown parking takes effect until further notice. At the river site, construction workers dump two loads of gravel and concrete down shafts to stem the continuing flow of water in the tunnel.
– Wednesday afternoon President Bush declares Chicago a federal disaster area, making businesses, individuals and local government eligible for aid to cover up to 75 percent of flood-related expenses.
It becomes clear that the new pilings near the Kinzie Street bridge were placed a few feet away from the old ones, despite warnings in a city contract that ”even slight position changes may cause serious damage to various underground cables and structures.”
– Early Thursday A 400-pound rubber and nylon bladder, which officials hope will help to plug the leak, arrives, but repair coordinators say it will only be useful to help seal the west side of the leak.
– Thursday morning City, state and federal officials announce programs to help people and businesses hurt by the flood.
– Midday Thursday The Army Corps of Engineers announces it will take at least 15 days to plug the leaking river and safely drain the flooded underground tunnel system.
Edison says only eight buildings remain completely without power. City inspectors test restaurants and drinking water at buildings hit by the flood. CTA officials announce that aside from at least $20 million in flood-induced subway repairs, extra operating expenses caused by the disaster will total as much as $600,000 a day.
– Thursday afternoon After meeting with Daley, business leaders estimate the flood`s total damage could surpass $1 billion.
– 9 a.m. Friday A diver inspects the tunnel, using a standard street broom to clear the walls of debris. He then helps guide concrete to ensure it is evenly distributed. The plug is deemed ”a very good seal.”
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Work on the east side of the river is essentially done, and crews move to the west side, where they will repeat the process.
– Midday Friday Matt Rodriguez, whom Daley appointed as the new police superintendent Monday, announces that church- and synagogue-goers will get a weekend reprieve from the city`s total on-street downtown parking ban.
Most downtown buildings, with the most notable exception of Field`s, have regained power.
– 1 p.m. Friday Daley announces that one side of the tunnel cutoff project is completed and the other end could be done by late Saturday.
– Friday afternoon Fire Department officials say 35 downtown buildings are still plagued with basement water, ranging from half an inch up to 40 feet. Experts say the ”long-term stability” of old downtown buildings with eight or fewer stories could be compromised when water is finally drained from the flooded tunnel system.
It is revealed that state inspectors never made a required final inspection of the pilings at the Kinzie Street bridge because the city never told them the job had been completed.
– 8 p.m. Friday As part of its ”planned outages,” Edison is set to shut off power to 57 buildings in the South Loop.
– 8 p.m. Friday As part of its ”planned outages,” Edison shuts off power to dozens of buildings in the South Loop.
– 10 p.m. Friday Repair officials ask Loop building engineers ”to shut down their pumps” because the pumping is creating a vacuum and destabilizing the plug.
– Saturday morning Administrators and movers relocate De Paul University`s downtown campus-including 3,600 rented chairs and 1,000 tables-to a vacant, 19-story building at 318 W. Adams St.
– 10 a.m. Saturday Great Lakes Dredge & Dock executives say their workers did not ask the city for maps showing what lay beneath the river before they sank 50-foot-long pilings near the Kinzie bridge. They say the city should have told them about the tunnel, in which case they never would have started the work.
– 3 p.m. Saturday State officials report growing flood damage to a huge drain beneath Hubbard`s Cave on the Kennedy Expressway. They say they will close that section of the expressway should the drain rupture.
– 4 p.m. Saturday City officials say the second of three holes is nearly plugged.