Riverside’s ongoing project to bring a floodwall to Groveland Avenue is getting a massive boost in federal funding.
Village Manager Jessica Frances on Aug. 20 announced the village will be receiving an additional $5 million in funding from the United States Army Corps of Engineers for the project due to an increase in the maximum amount of funding it can give.
“The village was notified by Army Corps that the cap for the federal contribution has now been increased from $10 million to $15 million,” Frances said before the village board. “That means the costs that we were seeing increase, that essentially the village would have to contribute less. If you recall the last budget we received, we were going to have to contribute in addition to [the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago].”
The project, which has made halting progress in the arenas of design and funding since its inception in 2018, was most recently estimated to cost $18 million in 2024, including nearly $1 million for an independent sewer separation. In March 2025, the MWRD increased its share of the cost to $4.9 million, up from the $2.5 million it had previously promised.
Altogether, Riverside was on the hook for $2 million in funding at that point, with $10 million coming from the Army Corps, $5 million from the MWRD and about $1 million in additional federal funding facilitated by Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García. That money will cover the sewer separation.
“We’ll have new intergovernmental agreements coming before the board with those revised numbers, and we’ll also be providing revised budgets relative to that,” Frances said. “The real estate, the appraisals, all of those things have increased [in price] since the last time [Army Corps] provided that information.”
In the project’s tradition of stop-start movement, Frances said the Army Corps has also placed Riverside’s sewer separation project on “administrative review,” pausing the release of funds that have been appropriated for the project. But she said the federal group is allowing work to continue in some form.
“They have stated that we can allow [Christopher B.] Burke [Engineering, Riverside’s contracted firm] to do our engineering, and then they would utilize that to then do their final bid documents. Since Burke is already familiar with those different specifications that are required for different federal jobs, we’re able to move forward with that,” she said.
Frances said the village board had already authorized the expenditures related to Burke’s work on the project, meaning the engineering firm’s work can begin shortly. She said the engineering work falling to the village and Burke’s hands will actually afford Riverside more flexibility with the construction of the floodwall.
“Once we get the engineering, the board can decide at that point in time whether to wait for the federal dollars to be released or whether the village wants to complete the project and not wait. We can do those things in tandem; while it was appropriated $1 million for us, it’s unknown at this point in time of whether or not those monies will be released and on what schedule.”
