The Cherry Lane Underpass

While Oak Avenue residents have been cleaning up their back yards, front yards, and basements, there were other flooding issues around town. 

Perhaps the Cherry Lane underpass flooding can provide another barometer of the demands being put on the storm water infrastructure throughout the town of Northbrook. 

When the road under the viaduct at Cherry and Meadow flooded during the recent storm on June 26, 2013, we learned that over three and a half inches had fallen from 4 AM to 9 AM. That amount was touted by the village as an enormous load of water in a very short time. With so many larger homes eating up so much permeable land and so little improvement to the infrastructure to take storm water away, three inches of rain can overwhelm Northbrook sewers very quickly.  

What's interesting to note is that when the viaduct flooded in 1987, there was more than eight inches of rain. [See historic mention below]

1982, 1985 and 1987 were considered 100-year flood years, i.e., floods that only happen every 100 years. Northbrook got three of them in one decade. 

Here's some photos of the flooded Cherry Lane underpass in case you missed it. By the way, there's a brand new Honda CRV in that water somewhere. We should also mention that the water has already started to drain. It also looks like the water level reached the top of the 14' sign, based on the watermarks on the bridge. 

The watermark on the bridge indicate that the flooding was at least eighteen inches higher. And you still can't see any sign of the car that got its engine flooded out in a misguided attempt to navigate the underpass. 

This photo was taken from the bridge over the north branch of the Chicago River, Northbrook's namesake. The river is flowing from left to right. When the river breaches its banks, it spills over onto the underpass, which fills up. The watermarks on the road show how far the water has receded. Below you can see a waterless Cherry Lane underpass.