Wheeling officials cleared the final hurdle toward a long-awaited storm water diversion channel by awarding contracts for its construction.
The Village Board gave a $2.3 million contract to Earth Werks Inc., of Carol Stream, for excavation. Crawford, Murphy & Tilly, an engineering firm in Aurora, will be paid $162,000 to supervise the project.
When complete, possibly in October, the 7,500-foot channel will carry storm water to the Des Plaines River, easing flooding problems in the central part of the village, Village Manager Craig G. Anderson said.
The channel will connect with the Buffalo Creek/Wheeling Ditch near Dundee Road and Northgate Parkway and run parallel to Northgate past Strong Avenue. It will then wind north and east through undeveloped areas until it reaches the river at Lake-Cook Road.
The final one-eighth to quarter-mile leg of the channel, as well as an underpass at Milwaukee Avenue, have been built, Anderson said. Village officials took up the idea of the diversion channel about 20 years ago, but the project faced delays while land acquisition was tied up in court, he said.
“It was not always at the top of the radar screen of village priorities, but there’s been continued interest in making it happen in the last several years and it’s been moved up on the list,” Anderson said.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service, an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will reimburse the village for most of the cost, Anderson said.
Excavation could begin next month, said Robert Gray, Wheeling public works director.
