New Flood Plan For La Grange's 'Extreme Corner'

LA GRANGE, IL – An engineer on Monday confirmed that the intersection of Sunset and Elm avenues is ground zero for flooding in the area north of 47th Street in La Grange.

He recommended a new idea for dealing with stormwater in that area.

For years, the village has relied on its plan for the Maple Avenue Relief Sewer, or MARS, to address problems with flooding at Sunset and Elm, among other areas.

But engineer Mike Burke told the Village Board that the Maple Avenue project would do relatively little to help Sunset and Elm in particular.

Instead, he recommended an underground vault at a Lyons Township High School athletic field a block to the west. It would be able to store 3.2 million gallons, which would remove most of the water heading to Sunset and Elm, he said.

He and village officials said they were in talks with high school officials, who are willing to delay installing an artificial turf field to let the village put in a tank.

The project's price tag is an estimated $9 million. Burke said he planned to submit a formal application for money to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

"The MARS project alone provides nominal benefits for Sunset and Elm," said Burke, who works for Rosemont-based Christopher Burke Engineering. "It doesn't provide the level of service that we want to provide for a significant flood depression like Sunset and Elm."

He said Sunset and Elm was the deepest flood pocket north of 47th, but said others existed.

Trustee Beth Augustine said many have waited a long time for such a report. She called the vault under a high school field a "fantastic" idea.

"This will clearly provide relief to that hard-hit area," she said. "Thank you, Laura West, for bringing it to our attention."

West, who lives at Sunset and Elm, has been regularly attending board meetings for the last couple of years to call for action.

At Monday's meeting, West thanked the engineer for the report.

"Sunset and Elm is not normal. This is an extreme corner, an extreme intersection," West said. "We are the retention for the entire neighborhood. It flows like rivers down all these streets to our corner. Our corner needs help."

A couple of years ago, Elmhurst put in an underground tank under an athletic field at York High School. Officials hailed it as an example of cooperation between the two entities.