The Village of Forest Park will soon break ground on its fourth and fifth green alleyways, located between the 800 and 900 blocks of Marengo Avenue and Circle Avenue.
Construction on these two blocks of alleys, bound to the North and South by Harrison Street and Harvard Street, is intended to reduce flooding in the area.
When it rains, the alleyway between Marengo Avenue and Circle Avenue collects water. Sal Stella, director of public works for the village, chalks this up to the way the ground is pitched and has settled over the last several years, creating pools of water throughout the alley when it rains.
“With the way that the alleys are not pitched properly to drain, you’ll often get water that sits after a heavy storm,” said Rachell Entler, Forest Park’s village administrator.
When it comes time for construction, contractors will rip up the alley’s asphalt, then lay a base layer of concrete. They will fix the pitch of the alley so that water flows to the center, toward permeable pavers made of crushed stone that run the length of the alley. These allow water to seep into the ground, instead of collecting in puddles.
Just like it has with the village’s three other green alleys, this construction will improve the deterioration of the alley’s asphalt, eliminate potholes and prevent flooding after storms — at least 47,000 gallons of it during “any given rain event,” according to the village’s agreement with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), which has helped fund these green alleys.
In 2018, the village won a grant to create a green alley and, the following year, repaved the Elgin-Marengo alley between Lexington and Harvard. Under the MWRD’s Green Infrastructure Partnership Opportunity program, the organization covered nearly half the cost of the alley, or up to $123,830 of the estimated $275,000.
The Elgin-Marengo stretch was the third green alley in the village, following the 500 block Thomas-Beloit alley and the 100 block Harlem-Elgin alley.
Years ago, Christopher Burke Engineering, the village’s usual construction engineering contractor, performed a study of the village’s alleys and their statuses. The ones with the worst flooding, like the stretch that’s next in line between Circle Avenue and Marengo Avenue, became green alleys.
The next green alley will cost the village $353,000, paid out of the Village Improvement Plan fund. The MWRD will cover the rest of the cost of $494,000.
The cost of a green alley is almost double that of a standard concrete one, according to Stella, but green alleys don’t come without perks.
“The benefits are that you’re conserving water. You’re allowing more water to infiltrate into the ground and waterways, which is a good thing for the environment,” Stella said. Groundwater benefits animals and biodiversity in the environment, plus keeps rivers flowing, like the nearby Des Plaines River.
Stella added, “It’s a good thing for MWRD because you’re getting less water going into their system to get treated.”
At a village council meeting Monday, all five commissioners and Mayor Rory Hoskins voted to start advertising for bids to construct the most recent green alley project.
In the past, the village was required to post requests for bids in a newspaper, in addition to at Village Hall, Entler said. The village has since passed an ordinance allowing bids to be posted online. This way, construction companies can submit applications through a portal set up by Christopher Burke Engineering, instead of mailing them or submitting them in-person.
This process will make it easier to find and choose a contractor for village projects like the most-recent green alley, plus the rest of the village’s alleyways.
“We’ve gone through about 85% of the alleys in town, and they’re all complete,” Stella said of the village’s progress over the last several years, mostly on the North side of Forest Park. “There’s half or more alleys on the South side that need to be done.”
After the fifth green alley is complete, Stella said the village wants to create at least one more in the next couple of years, in addition to redoing around 10 other alleys with concrete.
Entler said, “We can’t do every alley green, but we do try to get green alleys interspersed throughout the village as we get grant funding to do so.”