7th Avenue Creek has a history of flooding conditions, which have damaged homes and overtopped roadways, creating hazardous conditions and road closures. The City has been actively pursuing needed improvements to the creek. After several years of developing plans, obtaining grant funding, removing flood prone homes from along the creek, and finally designing and permitting improvement plans, the City will be moving forward with our first significant construction project in 2021, which stretches from Washington Avenue at the southern limit to S. 10th Avenue at the northeastern limit. The project will restore a natural meandering creek, stabilize streambanks, upsize culverts underneath Illinois, Indiana and South Avenues, remove a portion of S. 9th Avenue between E. Main Street and Illinois Avenue, and add a walking path along the creek between S. 10th Avenue and Indiana Avenue.
Project Benefits
This project will lower floodplain elevations, which will remove houses out of the floodplain and reduce the number of storms that will cause the creek to overtop the roadways. The project also will improve the water quality of the creek.
Project Timeline
Construction will begin in February with tree removal and clearing. This is necessary to change the elevation and physical location of the creek. Upon project completion, new naturalized areas and trees will be planted.
Utility installations and culvert replacements are expected to begin in March. Be alert for road closures, as culvert replacements at Illinois, Indiana, and South Avenues will close the roadways for multiple weeks at a time. To minimize traffic disruption, only one or two of the culverts will be worked on at a time. Construction is anticipated to be completed by the end of October, 2021.
Construction updates will be posted regularly on this website.
Phase 1 Project Cost and Grant Funding
The construction contract is being awarded to Martam Construction, for a total bid of $3,588,540.36, which is approximately $400,000 under budget.
The City has obtained three separate grants toward construction of Phase 1. The grant awards are as follows:
Green Infrastructure Grant Opportunity: $605,300.25
Total Grant Funding toward construction: $1,701,737.45, or 47.4% of construction costs!
Construction Engineer
Construction will be overseen by Chris Gottlieb, P.E., Civil Engineer II. Chris will be available for questions, comments or concerns on site during construction, but can also be reached by phone at 630.377.4405 or by email cgottlieb@stcharlesil.gov.
Additional Project Background
In 2008, 7th Avenue Creek experienced significant flooding. The flooding caused large scale property damage and street flooding. The 2008 flood kicked off a series of events, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) floodway and floodplain re-mapping process and the City’s plan to reduce and/or eliminate flooding within the 7th Avenue Creek watershed.
FEMA has modeled a new floodplain, which is in its final stages of approval. The new floodplain maps will become effective on July 20, 2021, mapping 42 residences and 15 commercial structures into the floodplain and floodway.
Master Plan and Watershed Plan
The City completed development of a Master Plan in 2017, which outlines a construction project for the 7th Avenue Creek watershed that will not only remove all of the structures from the floodplain, but will also provide naturalized greenway areas along the creek, increasing water quality and restoring the creek to a natural state. In addition to the master plan, the City developed a Watershed Plan for 7th Avenue Creek (in conjunction with State Street Creek). This plan addresses stakeholder concerns within the watershed and provides recommendations of ways that water quality can be improved.
