Evanston aldermen agreed to spend about $750,000 earlier this month in stop-gap measures to help protect the city’s eroding shoreline.
The price tag on the shoreline project cost is a “big expense not budgeted for this year,” said Lara Biggs, Evanston’s city engineer, at the Aug. 10 city council meeting. Aldermen unanimously approved the project as part of the consent agenda.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced earlier this month that they are seeking input on a pilot project that would move dredged sand from Waukegan Harbor down to beaches in Evanston, Lake Bluff, North Chicago and Glencoe, according to a city of Evanston news release.
The $750,000 to be spent in Evanston aims to address damage caused by record high Lake Michigan water levels, coupled with severe storms and intense waves. These events have significantly battered the lakefront revetment, which is a wall of borders along the shoreline to keep the water at bay, according to a memo from Project Manager Stefanie Levine.
As such, Evanston hired coastal engineers earlier this year to design emergency improvements at four of the most critical sites: Greenwood Beach, Elliot Park, Dempster Street Launch and Garden Park, according to the memo.
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In some places, revetments will be rebuilt, according to the memo. In others, such as Greenwood Beach and Elliot Park, giant sandbags will be placed to hold the rising water back.
Those sandbag walls will stand 4-feet tall, 5-feet wide and 50-feet long, according to the memo. They should help protect the beach and park for about three to five years. Ultimately though, a new revetment will need to be built in these two spots.
Long-term improvements are projected to cost between $2 million and $5 million at Greenwood Beach and $1 million to $3 million at Elliot Park.
Sandbag installation should begin in September and wrap up in November, according to the memo. It is crucial to finish the work before the 2020-21 winter storm season starts “in order to limit potentially significant damage to three beach houses, loss of public park land, an/or further revetment failure,” according to the memo.
The city received nine bids on the work and awarded the contract to Robe, Inc. of Chicago, according to the memo.
For the Waukegan Harbor sand transfer project, the Army Corps will take comments through Aug. 31 on the project’s draft feasibility report.
In Evanston, the sand would be placed on Greenwood Street Beach, Lee Street Beach, and what used to be the Evanston dog beach, according to the Army Corp’s report.
Glencoe Beach would be the site for that town.
The project could start as soon as 2021.