ALBANY PARK — Announced in 2013 after the North Branch of the Chicago River topped flood level for the third time since 2008, the Albany Park Stormwater Diversion Tunnel can't come fast enough for residents along the river's banks.
Construction is finally slated to begin this spring, after City Council authorized financing for the project last fall.
Members of the community will receive an update Monday from Ald. Margaret Laurino (39th) as well as representatives from the Chicago Department of Transportation and the Office of Emergency Management & Communication.
In addition to a construction timeline, speakers are expected to share preventative measures being put into place to safeguard residents of Albany Park and North Park until the tunnel's completion in 2018.
The public meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Monday at Eugene Field Park, 5100 N. Ridgeway Ave.
The tunnel is designed as a passive system that makes use of gravity to divert stormwater from the river and move it downstream to an outlet shaft that will spit the water into the North Shore Channel.
Eighteen feet in diameter and a mile long, the tunnel will run nearly parallel to Foster Avenue 150 feet underground.
The most visible elements will be the tunnel's inlet and outlet shafts.
The inlet, where water will enter the tunnel, will be built on unimproved Park District land on the north side of Foster Avenue at approximately Springfield Avenue. The outlet shaft will be built in River Park, just east of the North Shore Channel and south of Foster Avenue.
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