Smith & Cambridge Drainage Improvements

The rear yards at the intersection of Smith Road and Cambridge Drive in West Chicago were experiencing recurring flooding during storm events, causing damage to several adjacent residential structures. Our team was contracted to perform a drainage study to evaluate the existing drainage system and identify deficiencies that contributed to flooding. To do this, we built a detailed XP-SWMM hydrologic and hydraulic model of the existing drainage network and evaluated system performance for a range of both historical and design storm events. This analysis determined that the storm sewer and storm inlets draining the area were undersized and could not collect and convey stormwater runoff quickly enough to prevent flooding during intense, short duration storm events. We designed a relief storm sewer to increase conveyance and reduce peak water surface elevations in the rear yards, alleviating residential flooding.

This project received an ACEC Illinois 2024 Engineering Excellence Award.

Owner

DuPage County

Additional Info

Project highlights:

Coordination with the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County was required for work on their property.
We prepared preliminary and final engineering plans and construction documents for the project, including a a Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) for the proposed project using FEMA software.
The project required temporary disturbance of wetland and Waters of the U.S. buffer areas within the Smith Road ROW and at the outfall to Bass Lake. Our staff performed a detailed evaluation of these areas prior to construction and designed appropriate restoration measures to return the areas to their natural state.