Hundreds of River Road residents and businesses in Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights can now rest assured they’re shielded from Des Plaines River flooding, officials say.
Federal, state and local officials celebrated the completion of Levee 37, a $36 million project designed to provide flood protection to more than 600 homes and dozens of businesses along River Road in both communities. The levee will save an estimated $3 million a year in flood-related costs, officials say.
The project involved the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, Mount Prospect, Prospect Heights and Wheeling.
Federal funds paid for all but $100,000 of the cost of the project, one of six aimed at reducing flooding along 80 miles of the Des Plaines River.
“Levee 37 will save communities from flood damage and save money. Dollars spent on levees like this one help prevent disaster dollars needed down the line. This milestone is the culmination of many years of work and I am pleased to see this federal investment come to fruition to keep communities safe,” said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in a statement.
The idea for a levee has been around a long time, said Mount Prospect Mayor Arlene Juracek.
“It really started in about 1989 when the need became recognized,” she said. “We had some record flooding in the area in the late 1980s, and by 1989, folks realized this needed some attention.”
Juracek credits one of her predecessors, Mayor Gerald Farley, for pushing the project in the early days. Construction began in 2007 during her tenure as a village trustee.
“In the past, the flooding as been so bad we’ve actually had sail boats going down River Road,” she said.
Prospect Heights Mayor Nick Helmer said his city has fared no better.
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“In the last four years, we’ve had three major flooding situations,” he said, adding that they were the largely the result of heavy rainfalls occurring in shorts periods of time.
He said the levee, along with a detention basin in Wheeling, “will take care of almost all of the problems from the standpoint of the river overflowing.”
Helmer said his city also plans to help residents, who have had to pay flood insurance premiums as a result of living in a flood plain, appeal that designation now that the levy is completed.
Still, Juracek said the levee is not the entire solution with water coming over land from the west posing a threat to residents and businesses. Ultimately, she said, a storm sewer must be built to carry the water into the river, but pumps stationed along the levee wall will mitigate the issue for now.
“It’s likely to be a multi-year effort,” she said. And even with more to do, completion of the levee is significant, she said.
“It definitely serves a useful and important purpose,” she said.
Helmer said he and others involved in the project are “euphoric.”
“We ended up exactly where we’d hoped to be,” he said.
Gaines is a freelance reporter.