ALBANY PARK — Mayor Rahm Emanuel joined local and federal officials Sunday to break ground on the long-awaited Albany Park Storm Water Diversion Tunnel.
More than two years after the City Council approved $1.7 million toward the project, construction is underway and the tunnel is set to be completed by the end of 2017, Emanuel said. The overall project will cost approximately $70 million.
Running 150 feet below Foster Avenue, the tunnel will divert storm water from the North Branch of the Chicago River to an outlet about a mile to the east, where it will dump back out into the North Shore Channel.
Plans were drawn up for the tunnel after two violent storms led to major flooding and property damage in the area — first in 2008, then in 2013. Construction was supposed to begin last summer, but a funding snafu saw the groundbreaking date pushed back.
"In the last six years, we've had two 100-year storms that brought flooding here to the Albany Park area," Emanuel said. "To the residents of Albany Park, whose patience has literally worn thin, by 2017 we'll have answered your call, finally."
Like U.S. Senator Dick Durbin and Representative Mike Quigley, who also spoke at the event, the mayor pointed to climate change as an emerging challenge for leaders to address both in Washington and at a neighborhood level.
"These are the impacts of climate change," Emanuel said, in reference to the storms. "And we're going to see more and more of it. So if we don't invest, we're going to see serious consequences for the residents and communities that make up the greater Chicago area."
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