(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — After a delay of several months, the restoration of Lincoln Park’s North Pond is expected to begin in the next few weeks.
To put it simply, North Pond has been drying up, and the restoration project was supposed to begin late last year.
“Finding the right contractor took longer than we thought,” Doug Widener, executive director of the Lincoln Park Conservancy, said Wednesday.
The organization raised more than $7 million for the project. Widener previewed what the work will look like:
This month, the fencing goes up, and equipment comes in. The workers doing the dredging will start in late May or early June.
“If you can imagine that behind them is a curtain called the turbidity curtain, which will keep water on the other side, so there’s always a spot for aquatic species to go — whether they walk, swim or whether we move them,” he said.
The equipment is expected to be moved out by the end of November, he said.
Lauren Umek, project manager with the Department of Cultural and Natural Resources for the Chicago Park District, said they’re putting in native trees and plants as part of the project. They’re going to be small, at first.
“So it won’t look like the final completed vision for a year, three or maybe more,” Umek said.
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