Big Bend Lake expansion redesign plans may soon be unveiled
Newly redesigned plans for the Big Bend Lake Reservoir expansion may soon be unveiled by federal authorities, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman said Friday.
The Army Corps of Engineers in 1996 recommended six projects along the upper Des Plaines River watershed for flood mitigation after disastrous floods in 1986 and 1987.
Cook County projects include the completed Levee 50 in Des Plaines, Levee 37, presently under construction in Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights, and the Big Bend Lake Reservoir expansion - all on Cook County Forest Preserve District property.
Those projects recently received more than $4 million from the federal government, a major portion of which will go toward finishing the $26 million Levee 37, funded jointly by state and federal agencies.
The rest of the funding will go toward the redesign and planning of the Big Bend Lake Reservoir expansion, said Jeff Zuercher, Army Corps of Engineers Chicago District project manager for the Des Plaines River flood control projects.
Des Plaines city officials are excited about the development.
"This project received the money because it's very competitive," said Tim Oakley, Des Plaines director of public works and engineering.
Oakley said the project will benefit the entire region, "but we need to be very sensitive to the design that they are proposing."
Big Bend Lake is a man-made reservoir south of Golf Road and west of East River Road and the Tri-State Tollway.
The original plan for the reservoir's expansion involved dredging the lake and using portions of Cook County Forest Preserve land as storage for the excavated material.
That idea did not fly with forest preserve officials, Zuercher said.
The alternative was to haul 600,000 cubic yards or roughly 60,000 truck loads of excavated material off-site, which would have ballooned the estimated project cost to roughly $40 million, he said.
Zuercher said Army Corps' engineers went back to the drawing board to come up with a better solution that would cost half that much.
Officials are now considering a plan to use the excavated material for a taller berm around the reservoir - between 4 feet and 12 feet in some parts - and pumping the water into the bermed up area ahead of a flood event.
"We think we have a design that lowers the cost and increases benefits," Zuercher said. "Unfortunately, this reservoir expansion is very pricey."
He added, the final solution may end up costing between $20 million and $30 million.
Now, Zuercher has to get the other state and local government agencies on board with the new design.
"We need to get buy in from the forest preserve to allow us to use the land," he said. "We need to get buy in from the city of Des Plaines and the state."
That meeting will occur in the coming months.
Zuercher said he hopes for an agreement before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
"A lot of the design work is complete," he said. "We have the engineering work ready to go. If we got agreement from everybody, we could turn around and put it on the street within a couple of months."