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(Above) Flooding along Lake Michigan north of the Loop earlier this year.

3-Nov-19 – The cost to repair Chicago’s lakefront will be over a billion dollars, says 48th Ward Alderman Harry Osterman.

At a community forum at Loyola University on October 21, Osterman and other public officials warned that lakefront flooding this winter, made worse by shoreline erosion, could impact homes and roads. Lake Shore Drive and Sheridan Road, they said, could both be submerged in ice and water.

The Great Lakes are at a high point in what is believed to be a 30-year cycle of rising and falling lake levels.

A strip of high-rises along the lakefront north of Hollywood Beach may also be at risk. And the Lakefront Trail could be closed for long stretches this winter if giant ice sheets and ice dams form along the trail next to the lake.

While there does not seem to be consensus on which department is responsible for funding lakefront protection – Chicago Park District, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and United States Army Corps of Engineers were mentioned – experts who spoke at the forum did agree that Chicago will need to seek state funding in the short term and federal dollars for the long term.

Short-term solutions include concrete slab barriers near Juneway Terrace, Rogers Avenue, Howard Street, and Thorndale Avenue, all near Rogers Park. Barriers will also try to tame waves and ice dams adjacent to Lake Shore Drive between Oak Street and North Avenue, and along the lakefront at 49th, 50th, and 75th Streets.

Officials said the city has sandbags ready and has received water pumps from the Department of Homeland Security, which they hope will protect some of the city’s most important infrastructure.

Condominium unit owners at the forum, however, learned the city would not be helping with erosion on shoreline owned by their condo association, as it is on private property.