Calumet City and Lansing have approved agreements with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to move forward with a multimillion-dollar rehab of levee systems along the Little Calumet River that have been in place for some four decades.
A concrete and steel floodwall protects a stretch of homes in Lansing from overbank flooding from the adjacent Little Calumet River.
Calumet City approved the agreement in September and Lansing trustees voted Oct. 18. The approvals essentially commit the communities an agreement under which they will work in tandem with the Corps on the project.Of the estimated $16.4 million cost, $9.6 million will come from the federal government and the balance from the two communities, according to the Corps.
The work will bolster levees the suburbs built in the 1980s, which, according to the a Corps’ assessment, do not conform to federal standards for flood control.