The City of Chicago Department of Water Management (DWM) and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) have teamed up to tackle flooding on the West Side by collecting and storing stormwater in about 200, 12-foot-square concrete sections along LeMoyne Street. 

The Wing Storage Pilot Project came from the collaborative effort to find the best way to address more storage capacity for the West Side. Together, the agencies “came up with an innovative solution that utilizes underground infrastructure to accommodate stormwater under side streets to give sewers more capacity to handle the flow,” according to MWRD. 

The $12 million infrastructure investment is the second of two underground Wing Storage installations; the other, on Maypole Avenue, was completed in the spring. The two projects are expected to provide nearly 1.7 million gallons of stormwater storage capacity. 

According to ABC 7, the West Side storage tanks are part of a more than $500 million investment that the city plans to address flooding and upgrade the aging sewer system. 

Construction on the LeMoyne Street project will be completed in the fall and is expected to provide flood protection to more than 2,900 homes, businesses and other buildings across the 28th, 29th and 37th wards. 

The project aims to prevent a recurrence of severe flooding that impacted West Side neighborhoods during the major storms in July 2023. Austin, West Garfield Park and Galewood are all expected to benefit the most from the storage tanks.