Residents of northeast Hinsdale hope a delayed drainage evaluation of their neighborhood will finally lead to solutions for flooding issues that have emerged during the Tri-State Tollway expansion project.
At Tuesday’s village board meeting, trustees approved a contract with engineering firm HR Green to complete The Lane drainage study to address concerns about stormwater collecting and entering their homes.
Resident John Bloomfield, who has lived on the particularly hard-hit corner of Phillippa Street and Fuller Road for 20 years, told trustees major rain events never posed a threat until work began to widen the Tollway several years ago.
“It never flooded until June of 2021 when the construction by the Tollway caused the flooding,” Bloomfield stated during public comment.
He cited another incident this past July .
“The streets were flooded to the point where the police had to block things off,” Bloomfield said. “Hours after the rain had stopped, it still wasn’t draining. So our concern is something has permanently changed.”
Village President Tom Cauley said flood mitigation is the village’s responsibility and that a previous study authorized in April of 2021 was not completed because the engineering firm subsequently went out of business.
“That’s one of the reasons we’re a little bit slower in getting this done,” Cauley said. “We’ve had some good success in fixing flooded areas over the years.
“We plan to do the same thing here,” he added.
A memo from village engineer Matthew Lew cited “challenging topographical and subsurface drainage within this area” and stated that HR Green will go over the work done in the previous study “and create multiple potential stormwater projects with optimal benefit for the area.”
HR Green, which has done work for the village on numerous occasions, including drainage studies, will be paid $26,425. This study will be completed in early 2025, according to officials, with drainage improvement work potentially occurring in 2026 or beyond depending on the recommendation.
Because the drainage area discharges onto Tollway property, the Tollway had signed off on paying for half of the study in an intergovernmental agreement with the village. Cauley expressed a desire that the Tollway would contribute to the cost of the flood mitigation work, as well.
“To the extent that we can get them to help pay for this, we’re going to do that, too,” Cauley said.
Bloomfield asked that residents be notified of the consultant’s site visit to be able to provide firsthand accounts and that a photo repository be created to collect images of flood events. Coverage of the flooding in June of 2021 found residents with multiple feet of water in their basements.
“It just started rushing in a couple of our basement windows,” one resident said. “It was all very scary and it happened very fast.”
Bloomfield said he and his neighbors said they want peace of mind.
“Our goal is that we can sleep at night when it rains,” he said.
