City staff will ask Evanston aldermen Monday to approve unbudgeted spending to stabilize the city’s lakefront in response to rising lake levels.
City Engineer Lara Biggs says a report received from the Army Corps of Engineers last fall calls for rebuilding stone revetments along the shoreline, extending it to provide additional protection against wave action, especially at the Greenwood Street Beachhouse, and removing vegetation growing on the revetment that’s contributing to its destabilization.
In a memo to aldermen she proposes that, because of the short timeline for completing the work that the city enter into a sole-source contract with SmithGroup which has done previous coastal engineering work for the city and seek quotes from three contractors to carrry out the recommended work rather than completing the usual bidding process.
Erosion at the entrance to what used to be the city’s dog beach.
Biggs says the proposed actions won’t increase the sandy beach areas along the shoreline but should protect public property — like the beachhouse. It also will not impact revetments adjacent to private property.
No estimate of the cost of the project was included in the staff memo.