After Riverside trustees grappled this spring with the cost of a potential floodwall along Groveland Avenue rising unexpectedly by more than $10 million, village staff have identified funding mechanisms that may allow the village to pay only $2 million toward the project’s overall $18 million price tag.
At the village board’s Sept. 5 meeting, trustees voted to authorize staff to submit a revised request for funding toward the floodwall project to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago in the amount of $4.9 million. In 2018, Riverside successfully requested $2.5 million from the MWRD for funding toward the Des Plaines River flood prevention project, meaning the organization will nearly double its contribution if its board of commissioners approves the new ask.
Riverside’s board last discussed the project in April, when it directed the United States Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with an alternative design for the floodwall rather than the original proposal. That design, recommended by Christopher B. Burke Engineering, LLC, Riverside’s engineering firm, will see only one pump station constructed rather than two as well as a sewer separation completed north of Forest Avenue.
According to agenda documents from Thursday’s meeting, the floodwall, which includes design modifications recommended by Burke, will cost $16.5 million in total, down from the $18.3 million price tag the Army Corps put forward last year. Neither of these figures include the price of the sewer separation.
At the meeting, Village Manager Jessica Frances walked trustees through the progress she and other village staffers have made on finding funding for the project since that previous discussion. She said Riverside had applied for Congressional Community Project Funding for the sewer separation through Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García’s office.
“That initial amount for that project, provided by our engineer, was [$]925,000; however, that was not a federal project, so different federal requirements do bring that cost up significantly. We did submit that project, and, initially, Representative García’s office forwarded it on to [the House] Committee [on Appropriations] recommending approximately [$]740,000 to be funded,” Frances said. “In my conversations with their office, with [Village] President [Douglas] Pollock, we emphasized that, because it was a federal project … there would be additional costs, and we had not included that in our initial submission. As it currently stands, we are told that we are looking at receiving up to $1 million for that sewer separation.”
She said staff anticipates Riverside will need to cover $400,000 of “additional runoff costs” for the sewer separation, bringing its estimated total to $1.4 million. With the $16.5 million floodwall price tag, the village is looking at a $17.9 million total cost to prevent flooding in town along the Des Plaines River.
“Of that, federal funding will provide $11 million,” Frances said.
In asking the MWRD to nearly double its $2.5 million in funding, Riverside aims to get its own contribution toward both projects down to just $2 million while kicking off years of preparatory work.
With trustees’ approval, village staff “will provide subsequent documentation to MWRD staff to then present to their board,” Frances said. “We would then have a public partnership agreement that would come back before this board for approval with the final numbers, hopefully sometime in October [but] probably more realistically in November.”
Then, once the Army Corps finalizes the engineering, Riverside staff “would begin the property appraisal piece for different pieces along West Avenue that, tentatively, could take 18-24 months depending on the whole process,” she added.
The projected completion date for the floodwall is around “late 2028 into 2029” due to the moving parts that need to come together, she said.
After Frances’ presentation, Trustee Aberdeen Marsh-Ozga praised her and other village staffers for obtaining funding from Rep. García’s office for the sewer separation.
“I know that the notice on that was short notice, that tremendous work and effort was done to put together the application, and not only did you do it, but you also then followed through with it,” she said. “President Pollock, thank you for getting involved at that point and for really facilitating the increase in the proposed allocation, because I think that the ability to move forward with the sewer separation there is going to make a difference for our residents. It’s something we can do right away, and it’s a very meaningful step, so thank you.”
