A partnership between the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD), the Wheeling Park District and the village of Wheeling are taking a step further in providing flood relief for residents of Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights as representatives broke ground on the Heritage Park Flood Control Facility on June 4.
Located in the Des Plaines River watershed near the intersection of Dundee and Wolf Roads, the ceremony comes after several years of negotiations and design.
“In 2004, the Illinois General Assembly granted storm water authority for Cook County to the District, and we have been diligently working to address regional flooding issues ever since,” said MWRD Commissioner Debra Shore. “The Heritage Park Flood Control Facility is a great example of how a single project, conceived and executed in partnership, can provide both storm water management benefits and recreational amenities.”
The complex includes six storm water storage areas that will have a total capacity to store more than 49 million gallons of rainwater. Additional improvements to the park include new walkways, a pavilion by the lake, a band shell, soccer fields and baseball diamonds.
The complex will provide compensatory floodwater storage upstream of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Levee 37 flood control structure currently being constructed in Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights along the Des Plaines River. Together with the Heritage Park storm water facility, the levee project will help alleviate flooding for approximately 600 homes and businesses.
The MWRD Board of Commissioners and representatives from the Wheeling Park District and the Village of Wheeling signed an Intergovernmental Agreement in 2010 for the design, construction and operation of the storm water and related additional improvements to Heritage Park. The MWRD Commissioners retained AECOM Technical Services to design the project and awarded a contract to F.H. Paschen/Lake County Grading Joint Venture to construct the facility, which is scheduled to start in the coming days and will be completed in less than two years.
