The City of Elmhurst, in a continuation of its on-going citywide flood-mitigation effort, has hired Earthwerks to construct the Southwest Elmhurst Stormwater Mitigation Project-Phase III (SESMP-Ph. III). The project will construct an additional 3 acre-feet stormwater detention basin in the open field north of Jackson School. District 205 and the City have partnered on this project through an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) and the school intends to continue to use this field as a recreational area for students.
This work is scheduled to begin on July 5, 2022 and is anticipated to be completed in early August before the school year begins. All the construction work will occur within the field area but construction trucks will be entering and leaving the site to remove the excavated soil and to make construction material deliveries.
This new stormwater detention basin will be connected to the City’s existing larger stormwater basin to the west with a storm sewer pipe and will only fill up with during larger storm events, not smaller events. The bottom of the proposed stormwater basin will be a grass field, approximately 150 feet by 240 feet, that is 4-5 feet below the adjacent playground area. Access to the bottom of the grass stormwater basin will be provided by a concrete ramp near the playground area.
The SESMP-Ph. III project will help reduce the 100-year flooding depth by 0.5 feet and will remove an additional 9 homes from the 100-year inundation area. DuPage County has contributed a grant of $200,000 for this project.