Hanover Park, Schaumburg to collaborate on flood relief

Two neighboring villages will collaborate on a $6.2 million project to alleviate flooding that has most affected Anne Fox Elementary School in Hanover Park and the Schaumburg neighborhood around Braintree Drive and Weathersfield Way.

The villages will share a $1.7 million grant from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and a $1.25 million grant from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago to help fund the work. Schaumburg will receive another $412,500 from the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity.

Those grants bring Schaumburg's costs to $2.1 million and Hanover Park's to $765,811.

The flooding issues stem from the West Branch of the DuPage River. Work will include reducing streambank erosion, excavating the silted-in Springinsguth culvert, creating more floodplain storage in Olde Salem Park, improving storm flows in the channel, and some waterway realignment.

The first phase of the project will be the Hanover Park section to limit disruption at Fox School.

Hanover Park Mayor Rod Craig said physical intervention has been needed in the past to curb flooding that has threatened the school at 1035 Parkview Dr. The joint project with Schaumburg promises a better long-term solution, he added.

The same is true for the flood-prone downstream outlet of the Braintree-Weathersfield area, Schaumburg Communications Director Allison Albrecht said.

"The village has completed a number of improvements over the years to assist in conveying the flow, but it all ends up at this culvert that has lost capacity due to silting," she said. "The project allows the village an opportunity to eliminate the bottleneck and create some detention in this area to help with larger rain events."

Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly said the flooding may not be as severe as what areas of his village experienced in the late 20th century, but an improvement project like this is exactly what local government should be doing.