Flood Control for a Historic Bridge Renovation Site
Team Members Heading link
- Jack Dinello
- Xavier Figueroa
- Jake Leonard
- Scott Russell
Project Description Heading link
In recent years, the DuPage County Forest Preserve has focused on its efforts to improve its infrastructure, maintaining and improving pathways, and mitigating flooding within the areas they manage, including the DuPage River. One of their proposed projects is the rehabilitation of a historic bridge located at the Hidden Lake Forest Preserve in Downers Grove. The bridge was built in the 1870s by the King Iron Bridge Company. However, through structural analyses it was determined by the Park District’s Board of Commission that the historic bridge is in need of structural repairs and improvements. Furthermore, a review of the district’s flooding records identified the bridge as being susceptible to long-term flood-related damage that can directly affect nearby residential and commercial areas. The main objective of this project is to identify possible solutions that will improve the bridge’s structure while reducing the severity and frequency of flooding and thus reducing the risk of property damage. These goals must also be executed with minimal disturbance to the surrounding environment. This project will focus on the flood control aspect of the bridge and its surrounding areas. We will utilize the engineering software HEC-RAS to perform hydraulic analyses of the river and the area. We will then be guided by the results from the hydraulic analysis to implement a combination of probable solutions to control the excess flooding. These will include the design of a retention pond, introduction of new plant life to the forest preserve, and modification of the bridge level. From there, the data and the many combinations of plausible solutions will be analyzed in different scenarios to ensure that each can prevent flooding in short term and long term scenarios. A final analysis will then conclude which combination of solutions is the most efficient.