Several days of heavy rain have filled parts of Chicago’s Deep Tunnel system for the first time ever.
Now the city is turning to more local projects to stop flooding that devastated parts of the west side in 2023.
Mayor Brandon Johnson and leaders of the Chicago Department of Water Management and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District stood inside one of the massive concrete sections during a press conference Tuesday morning.
Crews are installing the 48,000-pound structures in Austin, West Garfield Park and Galewood.
Water Commissioner Randy Conner said unlike a typical sewer that fills from the bottom up, these wing systems fill from the top down so as to slow stormwater flowing into the rest of the system.
It’s designed to protect 2,900 homes and other buildings near LeMoyne Street and along Maypole Avenue on the west side by holding upwards of a combined 1.7 million gallons of stormwater.
Conner says they hope to know in 6-9 months if the work on Maypole, which was finished this spring, is worth replicating in other neighborhoods.
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District is sharing costs of the $12m project.
This follows devastating flooding on the West Side three years ago when storms dumped about nine inches of rain in less than a day.
A neighbor named Dorothy sat on her front porch a block away from the event and was skeptical of promises to stop flooding that has ruined the basement of her brick bungalow many times over the years.
