For the second time in six months, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) was honored for excellence in engineering for its Addison Creek Reservoir project which is working to combat flooding in the west suburbs of Cook County.

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois (ACEC-IL) praised the MWRD’s project in Bellwood with the Judge’s Choice and Honor Awards. There are three levels of awards that the ACEC-IL bestows, and the Honor Award is the highest. The reservoir was among nine projects highlighted through the ACEC-IL’s 2025 Engineering Excellence Awards that was also being voted on by the public to select the best infrastructure project across all of Illinois. The ACEC-IL recognized MWRD leadership and engineers at the 2025 Annual Engineering Excellence Awards Gala on Feb. 27 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare Chicago in Rosemont.

“As anyone who has worked on or lived by Addison Creek knows, the Addison Creek Reservoir is a gamechanger improving the quality of life for thousands of homeowners and businesses threatened with flooding,” said MWRD President Kari K. Steele. “We thank the American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois for this recognition, our design consultants at Christopher B. Burke Engineering, and the many engineers and municipal partners who have worked to address flooding in the west suburbs through this major project.”

The 600-acre-foot reservoir, located at 2795 Washington Blvd. in Bellwood, was designed to capture 195 million gallons of storage capacity, and was completed in 2023. At a cost of $81 million, the project includes a control structure, inlet structure, spillway and pumping station. 

The reservoir connects with the Addison Creek Channel, where three miles of ongoing improvements will combine with the reservoir to protect thousands of homes, businesses and other structures in communities along Addison Creek, including Bellwood, Broadview, Melrose Park, Northlake, Stone Park, and Westchester. 

The Addison Creek Reservoir and the Addison Creek Channel Improvement project will help ease public health and safety concerns by reducing overbank flooding to approximately 2,200 structures along the creek from Northlake to Broadview, including 1,700 structures that will be removed from the flood plain based on Bulletin 70 rainfall data. According to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the project will allow flood-prone properties within these six communities to qualify for reduced flood insurance premiums.

“Thank you to the American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois for commemorating and inspiring the best in engineering and shining a light on the important work that engineers provide that shape our landscape and improve our communities,” said MWRD Vice President Patricia Theresa Flynn. “The Addison Creek Reservoir and Channel improvements have required bold ingenuity, years of planning, detailed coordination and unpredictable challenges to overcome. We credit our staff and partners for their dedication and appreciate this honor.”

This is not the first time that MWRD engineers have been recognized for their work in creating the reservoir. In October 2024, the American Society of Civil Engineering-Illinois Section recognized the MWRD’s Addison Creek Reservoir with the Outstanding Engineering Achievement for projects ranging in cost from $25 million to $100 million.

The reservoir was partially funded via Cook County through a $5-million Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery Program from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The channel improvements benefit from a $9.9-million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency Hazard Mitigation Grant Program through the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security. 

Construction on the Addison Creek Channel is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. Full flood reduction benefits will be fully achieved when both projects are completed.