Main Street Flood Control Project Beginning in Spring

The $2.5 million project to renovate North Main Street in Wheaton to ease the annual flooding that often forces the street to close will commence in May and run through September, the Chicago Tribune reports.

According to the paper, the project was supposed to be finished in 2012, but the city experienced delays in negotiations with property owners and improving Northside Park to prevent the lagoon from flooding. At least one business on North Main was enthusiastic about having the renovations finally done, the paper said.

"Ever since we've been here it's been flooding and we've been in business since 1983," Smoke House manager Ken Jimenez told the paper. "Every year, without a doubt, there's at least one time, maybe twice, when everything is closed on Main and it destroys business... When that creek swells, it's terrible. I don't think a business should have to shut down just because it rains."

According to the City of Wheaton website, the improvements include replacing roadway culverts, widening Winfield Creek and adding a Main Street bridge over the creek.

"This will allow additional stormwater to flow under Main Street," the project description on the site reads. "After the projects are completed, no increase in flooding will take place on the Park District land at Northside Park, and no impacts are expected to affect the surrounding private properties or flood plain area."

Read more at the Chicago Tribune website and on the City of Wheaton website.